Ashley Lindsey Lab paper

Therapeutic Radiation at a Young Age Is Linked to Secondary Thyroid Cancer Cancer is among us everywhere and no matter what we do to protect ourselves the risk of cancer can affect us anywhere, at any time. The risk of thyroid cancer is scattering among 9170 patients who have survived over 2 years after being detected of having cancer in their childhood. The risk over the years has increased drastically since treatment for the initial cancer. Studies show that the treatment data were obtained for 23 cases and 89 matched controls form childhood cancer. The risk of thyroid cancer rose with increasing dosage. In this article it states It is not clear whether the risk of thyroid cancer may decrease after higher dose radiation because the cell-killing effect might outweigh the carcinogenic effect. In other words thyroid cancer has been reported after therapeutic radiation for several types of cancer but few studies have diagnosed the risk following therapeutic levels of external radiation or the effects of chemotherapy on the risk of thyroid cancer. Some risk factors for thyroid cancer could include, age of irradiation, time since irradiation, sex, ethnicity, reproductive factors, dietary constituents and familial predispositions. This study was started to evaluate the risk of thyroid cancer following radiation therapy and chemotherapy used in the management of childhood neoplasms which is a new, often uncontrolled growth of abnormal tissue, like a tumor. In Cohorts analysis he showed that the period of risk for developing thyroid cancer began 2 years after the diagnosis of the primary cancer and ended with the date of death, date last follow- up, or the date of developing a second cancer. He came to the conclusion that the tests of significant and confidence intervals for the relative risk where calculated by using exact probabilities of developing thyroid cancer over time where just and estimated method.

Ashley Lindsey Lab paper

As the results came to place, of the 9170 patients surviving for 2 or more years, it was estimated that 55% were male and 45% were younger than 5 years of age when the initial tumor was diagnosed. In the Cohort study he saw that overall, 23 cases of thyroid cancer occurred during the follow-up. The absolute excessive risk was 4.6 cases of thyroid cancer/10,000 persons/year. Risks varied by type of initial cancer, being highest among those treated. With that said, it has been proposed that the age of radiation exposures is an important factor in the development of thyroid cancer. The individuals treated at an early age appear to have a higher relative risk of thyroid cancer in the cohort study but the estimates of the expected numbers are very small and unstable. The numbers of thyroid cancers did not vary appreciably by age. The study also revealed that the individuals treated at an earlier age developed thyroid cancer after lower doses of radiation, which suggests to me that some increased sensitivity to radiation. So in conclusion the different levels of risk associated with types of first cancers in the cohort study may reflect the age at treatment and radiation dose but the higher risk of thyroid cancer among children treated at younger ages with lower dose are consistent with an age at treatment effect. An alternative explanation of this could be a cell killing effect at higher doses, which may reduce, but does not eliminate the risk of thyroid cancer. The radiogenic risks of thyroid cancer in this study must be put in perspective, during the time in which these patients were treated, significant therapeutic advances were made which have resulted in thousands of children surviving over periods of time. I think this shouldnt discourage the use of radiotherapy or other forms of cancer treatment because it is proved that thyroid cancer can be easily diagnosed as well treated.