Læknablaðið - 01.10.1968, Page 60
218
LÆKNABLAÐIÐ
LEUKEMIA DEATH RATES
IN RADI0L06ISTS AND SELECTED U.S. MALES
lOOr
90
10
0
U S MALES
AGE 25*
O----?-----
1926-30 '31-35 '36-'40
'4Í- 45 'A6- 50 '51-55 '56-'60 6l-'65
Fig. 3.
Leukemia death rates by time contrasting those of radiologists and
those of United States population.
States radiologists, as studied l)y March and others,10 that they
suffered an excess of leukemia. More particularly, I showed that
this excess leukemia incidence did not appear until after they had
practiced over 10 to 15 years.11 There is reason to believe that
as radiologists protected themselves better the excess incidence
of leukemia has decreased (Figs. 3 and 4).
Court Brown and Doll12 have sliown that men whose spines
were irradiated to treat ankylosing spondylitis developed an
excess incidence of leukemia, which tended to increase as the
dose increased. Hower, a study of (50,000 patient-years of cases
of cancer of the cervix uteri treated hy radiation,13 made under
United Nations auspices, has shown no increase in leukemia
incidence even though a large portion of the patients’ hema-
lopoietic tissue had been irradiated. Thus, as is so often the case
in medicine, the picture is not yel complete.