[ RadSafe ] Article: Radiation-induced chromosomal aberrations long-lived (Pu study)

[John Jacobus]

Of course, an important point is whether or not the
aberations lead to the cancers.  

-------------------------
Radiation-induced chromosomal aberrations long-lived
9/6/2005
By: Reuters Health

NEW YORK (Reuters Health), Sep 6 - Chromosomal
aberrations persist for years after occupational
exposure to ionizing radiation, according to a report
in the September issue of Genes, Chromosomes & Cancer.

"Establishing a link between the presence of complex
chromosome aberrations or even a marker chromosome
aberration with a disease will always be beneficial
for proper diagnosis/prognosis of a disease," Dr.
Manoor Prakash Hande from National University of
Singapore, Singapore, told Reuters Health. "Our study
was mainly focused on the identification of a
biomarker for plutonium exposure and as such it may
have minimal clinical implications." 

Dr. Hande and colleagues investigated the presence of
chromosome aberrations involving three or more breaks
in two or more chromosomes (complex chromosome
aberrations) in former workers at the Mayak weapons
complex in Russia who were occupationally exposed
decades earlier to sparsely and densely ionizing
radiation. 

The highly exposed plutonium workers showed a 2.9%
frequency of complex chromosome aberrations, the
authors report, compared with a frequency of 0.2%
among those with zero or moderate plutonium exposure.
Unexposed controls had no complex chromosome
aberrations. 

The frequency of simple translocation aberrations was
similar in the highly exposed plutonium workers and
the workers who received only high doses of sparsely
ionizing gamma rays, the report indicates. 

The yield of complex aberrations correlated
significantly with the bone marrow exposure to
plutonium, the researchers note, and the complex
chromosome aberrations detected were strikingly
similar to those found in some tumor cells. 

"As the Mayak Facility at Ozyorsk has a large database
of samples collected from exposed individuals,
including the ones who have died from cancer, it would
be interesting to collect those samples and analyze
for complex chromosome aberrations," Dr. Hande said.
"Such a study would definitely provide us with
evidence whether or not the cancer patients have such
chromosome aberrations or not." 

Last Updated: 2005-09-05 4:30:06 -0400 (Reuters
Health)

Genes Chromosomes Cancer 2005;44:1-9.

Copyright © 2005 Reuters Limited. 

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"Every now and then a man's mind is stretched by a new idea and never shrinks back to its original proportion." -- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

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

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