Risk of Leukemia Associated with Protracted Low-Dose Radiation Exposure: Updated Results from the National Registry for Radiation Workers Study.

Abstract

While the link between risk of leukemia and acute radiation exposure is well established for large doses received acutely, uncertainty remains around the translation of these risk estimates to occupational exposure scenarios where the doses are low and accumulated over time, possibly over many years. We present leukemia incidence and mortality radiation risk estimates derived from the National Registry for Radiation Workers, which is a large cohort of occupationally exposed workers from the United Kingdom (UK). The cohort comprised 173,081 workers from the UK who were monitored for occupational exposure to radiation. The cohort was followed for a total of 5.3 million person-years and the incidence and mortality due to leukemia was identified through to the end of follow-up in 2011. Poisson regression was used to investigate the relationship between cumulative radiation dose and leukemia mortality and incidence rates using excess relative risk (ERR) and excess additive risk (EAR) models. The results of this work showed a collective dose of 4,414 person-Sv accumulated by the cohort with an average cumulative dose of 25.5 mSv. Among male workers both the ERR and EAR models showed evidence of increased leukemia risk (excluding chronic lymphatic leukemia) associated with increasing cumulative dose. The ERR was 1.38 per Sv (90% CI: 0.04; 3.24) and EAR was 1.33 per 10,000 person-year-Sv (90% CI: 0.04; 2.89) when a linear model was used. These excess risks were driven by increased risks for chronic myeloid leukemia [ERR/Sv = 6.77 (90% CI: 2.14; 15.44)]. In conclusion, this study provides further evidence that leukemia risks may be increased by low-dose and protracted external radiation exposure. The risks are generally consistent with those observed in the atomic bomb survivor studies, as well as with risk coefficients on which international radiation safety standards, including the dose limits and constraints used to control exposures, are based.