Neuruppin, 18 October 2024

In August 2024 the Radiation Research Society published a platinum edition of its journal Radiation Research founded in 1954. The edition has a 55-page overview of major epidemiological studies on exposure to ionizing radiation. The text specifies that the overview “highlights historical and recent findings regarding radiation-associated risks for incidence and mortality of cancer and non-cancer outcomes with emphasis on study design and methods of exposure assessment and dose estimation along with brief consideration of sources of bias for a few of the more important studies”. 10 from a total of 816 quoted studies were compiled with the participation of the Institute of Biostatistics and Registry Research at the Brandenburg Medical School Theodor Fontane in Neuruppin, directed by Prof. Dr. Michael Hauptmann since 2019. The institute develops and applies innovative methodical and statistical approaches to decode the complex correlations of diseases and gain new evidence for the purposes of prevention and therapy.

Several MHB studies reveal that exposure of children to low radiation doses from computer tomography examinations is associated with an increased risk of brain tumors and leukemia (Hauptmann et al, Lancet Oncol 2023; Bosch de Basea et al, Nat Med 2023). Findings are based on a European cohort of almost one million children after CT scans whose exposure was quantified via a complex dosimetry system (Thierry-Chef et al, Radiat Res 2021). Three chapters of monographic reviews address aspects of epidemiological studies on ionizing radiation in low doses and cancer, including confounding and selection bias, and present a meta-analysis with clear indications that low doses are associated with increased cancer risk (Berrington de Gonzalez et al, J Natl Cancer Inst Monogr 2020; Schubauer-Berigan et al, J Natl Cancer Inst Monogr 2020, , Hauptmann et al, J Natl Cancer Inst Monogr 2020).

Two further reviews compile findings on exposure to low doses of ionizing radiation in childhood (Little et al, Environ Int 2022, Little et al, Sci Total Environ 2022). Several other publications are concerned with the consequences of exposure to therapeutic radiation and evaluate the effects of irradiated volume on the risk of subsequent development of breast cancer (Roberti et al, J Natl Cancer Inst 2022 ) and esophageal cancer (Journy et al, Radiother Oncol 2020) in survivors of Hodgkin lymphoma and breast cancer. A ground-breaking study presents the first model to predict the breast cancer risk in survivors of childhood cancer who underwent breast radiation therapy (Moskowitz et al, J Clin Oncol 2021).

According to Prof. Hauptmann, the special edition of Radiation Research underlines the importance of MHB research for an understanding of risks involved in ionizing radiation: “The findings have far-reaching consequences for medical practice as well as for the development of radiation safety guidelines – specifically for the treatment of children since their exposure to radiation needs to be kept as low as possible.”