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Thyroid Cancer Risk from Exposure to Ionizing Radiation: A Case Study in the Comparative Potency Model
Author(s) -
Laird Nan M.
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
risk analysis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.972
H-Index - 130
eISSN - 1539-6924
pISSN - 0272-4332
DOI - 10.1111/j.1539-6924.1987.tb00465.x
Subject(s) - ionizing radiation , potency , thyroid cancer , medicine , cancer , radiation exposure , oncology , environmental health , cancer research , medical physics , nuclear medicine , biology , irradiation , physics , genetics , nuclear physics , in vitro
Considerable controversy exists about the relative risk of thyroid cancer following exposure to external radiation compared to the risk after exposure to internally deposited 131 I. The human epidemiological data are equivocal, and studies are not directly comparable owing to differing ages at exposure, dose ranges, and periods of follow‐up. Limited experimental data at low dose ranges support the hypothesis of equal potency in animals. This report utilizes a relative potency model to reconcile data from different sources, and to provide an estimate of thyroid cancer risk following human exposure to 131 I. We utilize data from epidemiological studies of external radiation and 131 I exposure in humans and data from an experimental animal study. This analysis shows that the data provide no compelling evidence to suggest that the risks accompanying external radiation or 131 I exposure are different.