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Radiation Carcinogenesis

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  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Cancer

Synonyms

Gamma-ray-induced cancer; Ionizing radiation–induced cancer; Radiation-induced neoplastic transformation; X-ray-induced cancer

Definition

Radiation carcinogenesis is a biological phenomenon whereby living normal cells are damaged by ionizing radiations, which starts a progressive process causing the surviving cells to change their phenotype such that normal controls of cell death and apoptosis are lost and uncontrolled cancerous growth is initiated.

Characteristics

Radiation

Radiation is the deposition of energy into mass. Energy can appear as both corpuscles or electromagnetic quanta, or photons. Some of the elementary forms are protons, neutrons, electrons, x-rays, and gamma rays. X-rays originate outside of the nucleus of an atom while gamma rays originate within the atomic nucleus. Both are identical electromagnetic radiation with varying energies. The equivalence of matter expressed as energy is given by Albert Einstein’s relation: E = mc2, where E is energy, mis mass,...

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References

  1. Goffman JW (1990) Radiation-induced cancer from low-dose exposure: an independent analysis, 1st edn. Committee for Nuclear Responsibility, Inc Book Division, San Francisco

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  2. Buatti JM, Rivero LR, Jorgensen TJ (1992) Radiation-induced DNA single-strand breaks in freshly isolated human leukocytes. Radiat Res 132(2):200–206

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  3. Hall EJ (2005) Radiobiology for the radiologist, 6th edn. Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins, Philadelphia

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  4. Elkind MM (1984) Repair processes in radiation biology (review). Radiat Res 100(3):425–429

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  5. BEIR VII (2005) Health effects of exposure to low levels of ionizing radiation. Committee on the Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiations: National Academy of Sciences. National Academy Press, Washington, DC

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiation Oncology, USC Keck School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Colin K. Hill & Parvesh Kumar

Authors
  1. Colin K. Hill
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  2. Parvesh Kumar
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Parvesh Kumar .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University Professor of Genetics, German Cancer Research Center - DKFZ, Heidelberg, Germany

    Manfred Schwab

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© 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Hill, C.K., Kumar, P. (2011). Radiation Carcinogenesis. In: Schwab, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Cancer. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-16483-5_4898

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