Marek K. Janiak - Professor Emeritus, Former Head of the Department of Radiobiology and Radiation Protection, Military Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, Warsaw, Poland
Grzegorz Kamiński - Head of the Department of Endocrinology and Radioisotope Therapy, Military Institute of Medicine, Warsaw, Poland

Exposure to ionizing radiation, especially during childhood, is a well-established risk factor for thyroid cancer. Following the ۱۹۸۶ Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident the total number of cases of thyroid cancer registered between ۱۹۹۱ and ۲۰۱۵ in males and females who were less than ۱۸ years old exceeded ۱۹,۰۰۰ (in Belarus and Ukraine, and in the most contaminated oblasts of the Russian Federation). However, as indicated by the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation the fraction of the incidence of thyroid cancer attributable to radiation exposure among the non-evacuated residents of the contaminated regions of Belarus, Ukraine and Russia is of the order of ۰.۲۵. Apparently, the increased registration of thyroid neoplasms in the parts of these countries is a classical ‘screening effect’, i.e., massive diagnostic examinations of the risk-aware populations performed with modern eqipment resulting in detection of many occult neoplasms (incidentalomas). Moreover, one type of thyroid cancer previously called ‘encapsulated follicular variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma’ is non-invasive and instead of ‘carcinoma’ should now be recognized as ‘noninvasive follicular thyroid neoplasm with papillary-like nuclear features.’ Other potential causes of overdiagnosing of thyroid tumors include increase of the spontaneous incidence rate of this disease with age, iodine deficiency among children from Belarus, Russia and Ukraine, and/or consumption by these children of drinking water containing high levels of nitrates that likely coincides with the carcinogenic effect of radiation on the thyroid gland.

Chernobyl Accident, Thyroid cancer, Radiation, Ionizing, Contamination, Incidence, Overdiagnosis