A critical review of epidemiologic studies of radiofrequency exposure and human cancers.
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This paper reviews studies that have assessed associations between likely exposure to radiofrequency (RF) transmissions and various types of human cancer. These studies include three cluster investigations and five studies relating to general populations; all of these studies consider place of residence at the time of cancer diagnosis in regard to proximity to radio or television transmitters. There are also five relevant occupational cohort studies and several case-control studies of particular types of cancer. These studies assessed a large number of possible associations. Several positive associations suggesting an increased risk of some types of cancer in those who may have had greater exposure to RF emissions have been reported. However, the results are inconsistent: there is no type of cancer that has been consistently associated with RF exposures. The epidemiologic evidence falls short of the strength and consistency of evidence that is required to come to a reasonable conclusion that RF emissions are a likely cause of one or more types of human cancer. The evidence is weak in regard to its inconsistency, the design of the studies, the lack of detail on actual exposures, and the limitations of the studies in their ability to deal with other likely relevant factors. In some studies there may be biases in the data used (+info)
Cancer mortality among radiological technologists in Japan: updated analysis of follow-up data from 1969 to 1993.
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A retrospective cohort study was conducted for 12,195 male radiological technologists who received the occupational exposure to low dose radiation over a long term. A total of 1,097 deaths including 435 from cancer were ascertained by Koseki and death certificates from 1969 to 1993. Cancer mortality among the study population was basically compared with that of whole Japanese men. The significant low SMRs were obtained for all cancers, stomach and lung cancer partly due to Healthy Worker Effect, unlike the results of the early reports with some inappropriateness in the methods. Apparent high risks of lymphatic and hematopoietic cancers were observed, although none of site-specific cancers revealed the statistically significant increase. For these cancers, the SMRs among old sub-cohort were somewhat higher than those of young sub-cohort, whereas similar SMRs for solid cancer were obtained between the two sub-cohorts. The SMR for leukemia reached statistically significant level of 1.75 (95% CI: 1.07-2.71) when using whole professional and technical workers as a standard population. The study results might suggest that the chronic exposure to low-dose radiation enhanced the risk of lymphatic and hematopoietic cancers. (+info)
Cancer in children of nuclear industry employees: report on children aged under 25 years from nuclear industry family study.
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OBJECTIVE: To determine whether children of men and women occupationally exposed to ionising radiation are at increased risk of developing leukaemia or other cancers before their 25th birthday. DESIGN: Cohort study of children of nuclear industry employees. SETTING: Nuclear establishments operated by the Atomic Energy Authority, Atomic Weapons Establishment, and British Nuclear Fuels. SUBJECTS: 39 557 children of male employees and 8883 children of female employees. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Cancer incidence in offspring reported by parents. Employment and radiation monitoring data (including annual external dose) supplied by the nuclear authorities. RESULTS: 111 cancers were reported, of which 28 were leukaemia. The estimated standardised incidence ratios for children of male and female employees who were born in 1965 or later were 98 (95% confidence interval 73 to 129) and 96 (50 to 168) for all malignancies and 109 (61 to 180) and 95 (20 to 277) for leukaemia. The leukaemia rate in children whose fathers had accumulated a preconceptual dose of >/=100 mSv was 5.8 times that in children conceived before their fathers' employment in the nuclear industry (95% confidence interval 1.3 to 24.8) but this was based on only three exposed cases. Two of these cases were included in the west Cumbrian ("Gardner") case-control study. No significant trends were found between increasing dose and leukaemia. CONCLUSIONS: Cancer in young people is rare, and our results are based on small numbers of events. Overall, the findings suggest that the incidence of cancer and leukaemia among children of nuclear industry employees is similar to that in the general population. The possibility that exposure of fathers to relatively high doses of ionising radiation before their child's conception might be related to an increased risk of leukaemia in their offspring could not be disproved, but this result was based on only three cases, two of which have been previously reported. High conceptual doses are rare, and even if the occupational association were causal, the number of leukaemias involved would be small; in this study of over 46 000 children, fewer than three leukaemias could potentially be attributed to such an exposure. (+info)
Expression of multiple unique rejection antigens on murine leukemia BALB/c RLmale symbol1 and the role of dominant Akt antigen for tumor escape.
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Using the pRL1a Ag-loss RLmale symbol1 tumor variant cell line RM2-1, we demonstrated the presence of tumor Ags other than pRL1a that were recognized by CTLs on RLmale symbol1 cells. Semiallogeneic CB6F1 or syngeneic BALB/c CTLs generated against RM2-1 lysed RM2-1 and RLmale symbol1 cells to a similar extent, but no killing was observed with any other tumor or normal cells examined. Clonal analysis and sensitization with reversed phase-HPLC fractions revealed that there were Dd- and Ld-binding peptides recognized by RM2-1 CTLs. Lysis by bulk CTLs stimulated against RLmale symbol1 and limiting dilution analysis suggested that the pRL1a peptide was dominantly recognized to the RM2-1 peptides by CTLs on RLmale symbol1 cells. The rejection response against the parental RLmale symbol1 tumor was much less than that against RM2-1 cells in either CB6F1 or BALB/c mice, suggesting that the presence of altered Akt molecules from which the dominant pRL1a peptide was derived inhibited the rejection response against RLmale symbol1. Depletion of CD4 T cells caused the regression of RLmale symbol1 at the doses in which the tumor grew in untreated mice. The generation of pRL1a CTLs was inhibited in RLmale symbol1-bearing mice. Thus, immunoregulatory CD4 T cells were most likely activated by the altered Akt molecules and inhibited the efficient generation of CTLs against the dominant pRL1a Ag in RLmale symbol1. (+info)
Chronic toxicity/oncogenicity evaluation of 60 Hz (power frequency) magnetic fields in F344/N rats.
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A 2-yr whole-body exposure study was conducted to evaluate the chronic toxicity and possible oncogenicity of 60 Hz (power frequency) magnetic fields in rats. Groups of 100 male and 100 female F344/N rats were exposed continuously to pure, linearly polarized, transient-free 60 Hz magnetic fields at flux densities of 0 Gauss (G) (sham control), 20 milligauss (mG), 2 G, and 10 G; an additional group of 100 male and 100 female F344/N rats received intermittent (1 hr on/1 hr off) exposure to 10 G fields. Mortality patterns, body weight gains throughout the study, and the total incidence and number of malignant and benign tumors in all groups exposed to magnetic fields were similar to those found in sex-matched sham controls. Statistically significant increases in the combined incidence of C-cell adenomas and carcinomas of the thyroid were seen in male rats chronically exposed to 20 mG and 2 G magnetic fields. These increases were not seen in male rats exposed continuously or intermittently to 10 G fields or in female rats at any magnetic field exposure level. No increases in the incidence of neoplasms, which have been identified in epidemiology studies as possible targets of magnetic field action (leukemia, breast cancer, and brain cancer), were found in any group exposed to magnetic fields. There was a decrease in leukemia in male rats exposed to 10 G intermittent fields. The occurrence of C-cell tumors at the 2 lower field intensities in male rats is interpreted as equivocal evidence of carcinogenicity; data from female rats provides no evidence of carcinogenicity in that sex. These data, when considered as a whole, are interpreted as indicating that chronic exposure to pure linearly polarized 60 Hz magnetic fields has little or no effect on cancer development in the F344/N rat. (+info)
Tumor rejection by in vivo administration of anti-CD25 (interleukin-2 receptor alpha) monoclonal antibody.
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Immune regulation has been shown to be involved in the progressive growth of some murine tumors. In this study, we demonstrated that a single in vivo administration of an amount less than 0.125 mg of anti-CD25 interleukin 2 receptor alpha monoclonal antibody (mAb; PC61) caused the regression of tumors that grew progressively in syngeneic mice. The tumors used were five leukemias, a myeloma, and two sarcomas derived from four different inbred mouse strains. Anti-CD25 mAb (PC61) showed an effect in six of the eight tumors. Administration of anti-CD25 mAb (PC61) caused a reduction in the number of CD4+ CD25+ cells in the peripheral lymphoid tissues. The findings suggested that CD4+ CD25+ immunoregulatory cells were involved in the growth of those tumors. Kinetic analysis showed that the administration of anti-CD25 mAb (PC61) later than day 2 after tumor inoculation caused no tumor regression, irrespective of depletion of CD4+ CD25+ immunoregulatory cells. Two leukemias, on which the PC61-treatment had no effect, seemed to be incapable of eliciting effective rejection responses in the recipient mice because of low or no antigenicity. (+info)
An E mu-BCL-2 transgene facilitates leukaemogenesis by ionizing radiation.
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Clonogenic murine B cell precursors are normally ultrasensitive to apoptosis following genotoxic exposure in vitro but can be protected by expression of an E mu-BCL-2 transgene. Such exposures are likely to be mutagenic. This in turn suggests that a level of in vivo genotoxic exposure that usually has minimal pathological consequences might become leukaemogenic when damaged cells fail to abort by apoptosis. If this were to be the case, then the cell type that becomes leukaemic and the chromosomal/molecular changes that occur would also be of considerable interest. We tested this possibility by exposing E mu-BCL-2 and wild-type mice of differing ages to a single dose of X-irradiation of 1-4 Gy. Young (approximately 4-6 weeks) transgenic mice developed leukaemia at a high rate following exposure to 2 Gy but adult mice (4-6 months) did not. Exposure to 4 Gy produced leukaemia in both young and adult transgenic mice but at a higher frequency in the former. Leukaemic cell populations showed clonal rearrangements of the IGH gene but in most cases analysed had immunophenotypic features of an early B lympho-myeloid progenitor population which has not previously been recorded in radiation leukaemogenesis. Molecular cytogenetic analysis of leukaemic cells by banded karyotype and FISH revealed a consistent double abnormality: trisomy 15 plus an interstitial deletion of chromosome 4 that was confirmed by LOH analysis. (+info)
Chromosomal instability in acute myelocytic leukemia and myelodysplastic syndrome patients among atomic bomb survivors.
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To clarify the mechanism of leukemogenesis in atomic bomb survivors, leukemic cells were investigated using fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) analysis on the basis of conventional G-banding in patients with a history of radiation exposure and also in de novo patients. Conventional G-banding showed higher incidences (p < 0.005) of structural and numerical abnormalities without any specific types of chromosome aberrations in the group exposed to a dose of more than one Gy, compared to the non-exposed group. FISH analysis revealed significantly higher incidences (P < 0.05) of subclones with monosomy 7 and deletion of the 20q13.2 region, which were not found in conventional cytogenetic analysis in the exposed group (more than one Gy) compared to the non-exposed controls. Furthermore, segmental jumping translocation (SJT) of the c-MYC gene region was observed only in the exposed group. These chromosomal instability suggested that the leukemic cells from the heavily exposed patients contained persistent cellular genetic instability which may strongly influence the development of leukemia in people exposed to radiation. (+info)