April 26, 1999
Deb Pettibone 716-845-8593 [email protected]
RPCI STUDYING HEALTH EFFECTS OF CHERNOBYL ACCIDENT
BUFFALO, NY -- Researchers from Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) are part of an international group studying the long-term health effects caused by the destruction of the nuclear power plant in Chernobyl, Ukraine, April 26, 1986, which exposed thousands to radiation and contaminated farmlands in the Ukraine and Belarus.
Philip McCarthy, MD, Division of Medicine; Arthur Michalek, PhD, Dean of the Graduate Division; and Kirsten Moysich, PhD, Cancer Prevention, Epidemiology and Biostatistics, are working on the Leukemia Case Control Study of the Ukraine to determine if chronic, low-level exposure to radiation causes cancer. This international collaboration among the United States, Ukraine, Belarus, former Soviet Union and Israel is funded by the United States Navy, which is interested in the long-term effects of radioactive exposure due to the number of sailors exposed to radiation during the course of their careers.
"We expected to find and have found increased levels of cancer of the thyroid, the most radiation sensitive organ in the body. We are currently looking at acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) because we believe it may be radiation sensitive. We do not know what other cancers may result, but we may look at bone, breast and testicular cancer and infertility issues in this region in the future," said Dr. Michalek.
The study is specifically examining persons who were aged 0-6 years at the time of exposure. Each confirmed case of ALL is interviewed and a dose of radiation exposure is calculated for that person. To date, 139 patients with ALL and 219 controls (healthy persons) have been identified and interviewed. The goal is to find 280 ALL cases and 560 controls in the Ukraine. The data from this population will be pooled with similar studies in Belarus and former Soviet Union to see if low, medium or high exposure affects health.
This study should be completed early next year and initial results should be available in late 2000. "I don't know if we will find any correlation between low-level exposure to radiation and cancer. This does offer an opportunity to learn about the long-term effects of radiation and help the people who were affected by the explosion," said Dr. Michalek.
Roswell Park Cancer Institute, founded in 1898, is the nation's first and one of its largest cancer research, treatment and education centers, and is the only National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer centers in Western New York.
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