[ RadSafe ] Comments on scientific papers must also be subjected to peer review

[parthasarathy k s]

Friends,
  I agree with John. Very few of us have the expertise in epidemiology to evaluate the comments. Even if  we are experts, it is appropriate that the comments or any analysis should appear in open literature; ideally in the same journal. That way the authors of the original paper will get a chance to respond, even to re-analyse their data. This is not to dismiss the validity of the comments or analysis in the present instance.
   
  Regards,
   
  K.S.Parthasarathy
  Raja Ramanna fellow
  Department of Atomic Energy
  India

John Jacobus <crispy_bird at yahoo.com> wrote:
  Dr. Scott,
Have you sent a letter to the Journal of the National
Cancer Institute? It would seem to me that any
challenges or questions you have in the data should be
made to the editors and those involved with the review
of this article. They should respond to your
concerns. 

If the principal authors do not know about your
questions, how can they respond?

--- "Scott, Bobby" wrote:

> Comments on Thyroid Cancer Paper by E. Cardis et al.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Paper: E. Cardis et al., Risk of Cancer After
> Exposure to I-131 in
> Childhood
> 
> Journal: Journal of the National Cancer Institute
> Vol. 97, No. 10 pages
> 724-732, May 18, 2005.
> 
> 
> 
> The authors carried out a population-based,
> case-control study of
> thyroid cancer in Belarus and the Russian Federation
> to evaluate the
> risk of thyroid cancer after exposure to radioactive
> iodine (mainly
> I-131) from the 1986 Chernobyl accident and to
> investigate environmental
> and host factors that may modify the risk. The
> study involved 276 case
> patients with thyroid cancer through 1998 and 1300
> matched control
> subjects, all younger than 15 years at the time of
> the Chernobyl
> accident. Linear and linear-quadratic excess
> relative risk models were
> fit to the data using conditional logistic
> regression. A strong
> dose-response relationship was found between the
> calculated absorbed
> radiation dose to the thyroid received in childhood
> and thyroid cancer
> (P<0.001). A linear dose-response relationship was
> stated to have been
> observed up to 1.5 - 2 Gy.
> 
> . . .

> 
> Radsafe Digest readers, comments on the above would
> be welcomed.
> 
> 
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> Bobby R. Scott, Ph.D.
> 
> Senior Scientist
> 
> Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute
> 
> 2425 Ridgecrest Drive SE
> 
> Albuquerque, NM 87108 USA
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
=== message truncated ===


+++++++++++++++++++
"Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction."
"John F. Kennedy, U.S. President and former Naval Officer 

-- John
John Jacobus, MS
Certified Health Physicist
e-mail: crispy_bird at yahoo.com

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