RE: Lung cancer mortality from radon versus mortality fromother cancers

["Eric Cowdrey" <Eric.Cowdrey@CANCERCARE.MB.CA>]

Radsafers:



As we all come to appreciate with age - "there is more in heaven and

earth than dreamt of in our philosophy."



Don Smith's interesting comment raises the possibility, to me,  that

lung cancer may have important causes other than smoking or exposure to

radon. One intriguing finding involving skin cancer was noted in the UK

National Radiological Protection Board (NRPB) Radiological Protection

Bulletin, No: 207, November 1998, p. 21. Entitled "Second Cancers," the

NRPB article summarized the findings of a paper in the Jounal of the

American Medical Association:



"In 1,100,000 volunteers followed for 12 years, men and women with

non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC) had an increased cancer mortality risk

of around 27%. Mortality was increased for melanoma, pharyngeal cancer,

lung cancer and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in men and women. In men,

mortality was increased for cancers of the salivary glands, prostate,

testis, urinary bladder and leukaemia. Women had excess breast-cancer

mortality. Possible biological mechanisms include immunosuppression or

somatic mutations caused by the exposure to ultraviolet radiation that

had caused NMSC (Journal of

the American Medical Association, 280, 910-12, 1998)."



Note the excess mortality from lung cancer. It seems to me that having

had a previous skin cancer might be a useful thing to ask of a victim of

lung cancer in epidemiological studies.



While skin cancer is the most frequentlty diagnosed form of cancer, the

NMSC form  is also considered easy to "cure" and hence forgotten. This

published paper clearly shows that this shouldn't be the case.





Eric Cowdrey, M.Sc. (Physics)

Radiation Protection Officer

Department of Medical Physics

CancerCare Manitoba

675 McDermot Avenue

Winnipeg, Manitoba  R3E 0V9

Canada



Tel (204) 787-2166

Fax (204) 775-1684

mailto:Eric.Cowdrey@cancercare.mb.ca



Industrial hygiene in Manitoba: http://aiha.cancercare.mb.ca

Radiology in Manitoba:

http://www.umanitoba.ca/faculties/medicine/radiology



Disclaimer: My statements/opinions do not necessarily represent those

of CancerCare Manitoba



>>> "Rad health" <healthrad@HOTMAIL.COM> 01/16/02 09:10PM >>>

Jim,



How can it be that even now, 15% of primary lung cancers arise in never



smokers.



15% of 160,000 = many more than essentially none



Don Smith



>From: "Jim Muckerheide" <jmuckerheide@cnts.wpi.edu>

>To: "maury" <maury@WEBTEXAS.COM>, "Rad health"

<healthrad@HOTMAIL.COM>

>CC: <radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu>

>Subject: RE: Lung cancer mortality from radon versus mortality from

other 

>cancers

>Date: Wed, 16 Jan 2002 22:21:54 -0500

>

>Maury,

>

>As already presented and discussed, these are supposedly lung cancers

>(including metastatic), but there is essentially NO lung cancer

before

>smoking. No such results are possible.  It's just rationalization to

>defend the rad protection "mission" to extract funds from by

producing

>fear in a gullible public. EPA had to do this when it was pointed out

>that their rad limits were orders of magnitude more stringent than

the

>release and exposure to natural radon.

>

>Suddenly the "Environmental Protection Agency" went from protecting

the

>environment from the ravages of man to protecting man from the

ravages

>of the environment. Never underestimate the creativity and diligence

of

>a bureaucracy with enough money to perpetuate itself. :-)

>

>Regards, Jim

>============

>

>-----Original Message-----

>From:	maury

>Sent:	Wed 16-Jan-02 6:48 PM

>To:	Rad health

>Cc:	radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu 

>Subject:	Re: Lung cancer mortality from radon versus mortality

>from other cancers

>

>Then, since you suggest a few examples, surprise us. Provide a few

>numbers just as examples to support your point - and how do you

untangle

>such cases

>as the class: brain cancer. When one has lung cancer, that cancer

often

>subsequently appears in the brain as well as elsewhere in the body.

Is

>this

>still, as physicians typically refer to it, lung cancer? How are

these

>data untangled.? In any event, you have asserted 19,000 cancer deaths

>from

>radon; in your view what are the comparable numbers for brain,

breast,

>prostate, and bone?

>Thanks,

>Maury Siskel     maury@webtexas.com 

>----------

>LNT got your goat? Well, take a short break and think how nice it is

>that wrinkles don't hurt ....

>===============================================

>Rad health wrote:

>

> > Patricia,

> >

> > At the recent ARRST/CRCPD International Radon Meeting

>http://www.aarst.org/ 

> > in Daytona Beach, Dr. Field pointed out that if the BEIR VI

>predictions are

> > accurate.  These 19,000 cancer deaths from radon exceed the total

>number of

> > cancer deaths for many forms of cancers.  You may be surprised if

you

>check

> > how many cancer deaths there are from the following cancers:

brain,

>breast,

> > prostate, bone, etc. each year.

> >

> > Don Smith

> >

> > >From: "Patricia Milligan" <PXM@nrc.gov>

> >

> > Possibly, quite possibly, the radiological and chemical insults to

our

> > bodies over the thousands of years is what directed our course of

>evolution.

> >   One would reasonably expect, given LNT and the large number of

>people in

>

>----------- snipped  -----------------

>

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>

><< winmail.dat >>





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