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Risk of thyroid cancer in Ukrainian cleanup workers following the Chornobyl accident

  • RADIATION EPIDEMIOLOGY
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Abstract

Although much is known about the radiation-related risk of thyroid cancer in those exposed at young ages, less is known about the risk due to adult exposure, particularly in men. We aimed to examine the association between thyroid radiation dose received during adulthood and thyroid cancer risk in men. We conducted a nested case–control study (149 cases; 458 controls) of male, Ukrainian cleanup workers who first worked in the Chornobyl zone between ages 18 and 59 years, with cases identified through linkage with the National Cancer Registry of Ukraine from 1988 to 2012. Individual thyroid doses due to external and internal exposure during the cleanup mission and during residence in contaminated settlements were estimated (total dose mean 199 mGy; range 0.15 mGy to 9.0 Gy). The excess odds ratio per gray (EOR/Gy) for overall thyroid cancer was 0.40 (95% CI: − 0.05, 1.48; p-value = 0.118). Time since exposure was borderline significant (p-value = 0.061) in modifying this association so that less time since exposure was associated with a stronger EOR/Gy. An elevated, but nonsignificant association was observed for follicular thyroid cancer (EOR/Gy = 1.72; 95% CI: − 0.25, 13.69; p-value = 0.155) based on a small number of cases (n = 24). Our findings for radiation-related overall thyroid cancer risk are consistent with evidence of increased risks observed in most of the other studies of adult exposure, though the magnitude of the effect in this study is lower than in the previous case–control study of Chornobyl cleanup workers.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the study participants and gratefully acknowledge the medical and administrative staff for study management and data collection. We would like to express our great thank you to Petro Bondarenko who served as dosimetry expert and analyzed subject-by-subject all the questionnaire data and converted it to computer code Rockville. Special thanks to staff that conducted personal interviews: Svitlana Danevich, Nadezhda Gurova, Olena Khukhrianska, and late Yurii Spychak and we express our gratitude to Professor Anatoly Prysyazhnyuk.

Funding

This research was supported by the Intramural Research Program, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Research Centre for Radiation Medicine, Kyiv, 04050, Ukraine

    Natalia Gudzenko, Vadim Chumak, Elena Bakhanova, Natalia Trotsyuk & Dimitry Bazyka

  2. Radiation Epidemiology Branch, DCEG, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, NIH, DHHS, National Cancer Institute, 9609 Medical Center Dr., Rm 7E542, Bethesda, MD, MS 9778, USA

    Kiyohiko Mabuchi, Mark P. Little, Maureen Hatch, Vladimir Drozdovitch, Vibha Vij & Elizabeth K. Cahoon

  3. Radiation Research Effects Foundation, Hiroshima, Japan

    Alina V. Brenner

  4. Burnasyan Federal Medical and Biophysical Centre, 46 Zhivopisnaya Street, Moscow, 123182, Russia

    Victor Kryuchkov & Ivan Golovanov

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  1. Natalia Gudzenko
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  2. Kiyohiko Mabuchi
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  3. Alina V. Brenner
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Correspondence to Elizabeth K. Cahoon.

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Gudzenko, N., Mabuchi, K., Brenner, A.V. et al. Risk of thyroid cancer in Ukrainian cleanup workers following the Chornobyl accident. Eur J Epidemiol 37, 67–77 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-021-00822-9

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