Mortality may be tied to prolonged exposure to low-dose radiation.(Brief Article)

2002 JUL 18 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Women who worked as radiation technologists before 1950 have a higher risk of dying from breast cancer than those who began working in more recent years, reported Aparna K. Mohan, MD, PhD, now with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and her coworkers in the June 19, 2002, issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Women exposed to high-dose radiation are known to be at increased risk of developing breast cancer. However, it is unclear how prolonged exposure to low or moderate levels of radiation influences breast cancer risk.

A previous study of female medical radiation workers in China suggested that breast cancer risk increased the further back these women were first employed. In the United States, women represent a large proportion of all medical radiation workers.

To examine breast cancer mortality among female medical radiation workers in the United States, Mohan and colleagues looked at radiation-exposure trends among 69,525 female radiologic technologists who completed an earlier questionnaire about their lifetime work histories, reproductive and family cancer histories, and other lifestyle factors that influence breast cancer risk. The women were certified as radiation ...