Læknablaðið - 01.10.1968, Page 64

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LÆKNABLAÐIÐ
Fig. 7.
Note abnormal, including three dicentric, chromosomes present in
karyotype of 70-year-old woman who had received 4700 R to 25
per cent of her bone marrow.
pliaticus and whose thyroid glands were also exposed. It is, of
course, now realized that tliis was an unnecessary and potentially
harmful procedure, but it was felt 30 or 40 years ago to he of
distinct benefit to the patient. Among some 3000 of them nine
cancers of the thyroid and 21 adenomas were found, a marked
excess. Interestingly enough, several other types of tumors
appeared, sucli as osteochondroma, but in insufficient amonnt to
warrant drawing any conclusions as to causal relationships. The
doses of radiation received l)y tlie thyroid ranged from about
100 R to over 1000 R. As a further instance of radiation damage
to the thyroid gland, the survivors in Hiroshima and Nagasaki
have develojied about twice the number ol’ tbyroid cancers found
in the general Japanese population. The type of thyroid cancer
that follows these radiation exposure tends to he the papillary
adenocarcinoma which, fortunately, is of relatively low
malignancy and hence affords a high proportion of cures. As an
added l)it of evidence, many of tlie Marshallese cliildren exposed