«In Italia il cancro alla tiroide, sotto i 45 anni, è il secondo tumore più comune tra le donne e il quinto tra gli uomini. Ma non solo. Uno studio molto quotato pubblicato il 15 ottobre scorso negli Annali di Oncologia (Incidence of Thyroid Cancer in Italy, 1991-2005, curato dall’equipe del dottor Dal Maso del Centro di Riferimento Oncologico di Aviano, in provincia di Pordenone) – ci racconta come i casi di malattia registrati tra il 2001 e il 2005 siano raddoppiati rispetto a quelli segnalati dieci anni prima (tra il 1991 e il 1995) sia per le donne, più inclini geneticamente alla malattia, sia per gli uomini. Duplicati, in un solo colpo. Ma lo studio ci dice anche un’altra cosa: per la stragrande maggioranza dei casi si tratta di carcinoma papillare.
Nel 1999 i malati in Bielorussia erano saliti a 583, in Ucraina erano arrivati a 324. Se l'incidenza di cancro alla tiroide era di circa 1 per un milione di bambini, in Bielorussia l'incidenza era aumentata di 30 volte nel 1995 e nelle zone circostanti Chernobyl di cento volte. Ma non solo. L'incidenza della malattia, entro il 1998, risultò superiore in bambini che avevano meno di due anni al momento dell'incidente. E dunque non erano stati esposti al fall out in maniera diretta, ma per via «transgenerazionale » (cioè per l’esposizione dei genitori e delle loro cellule riproduttive, i gameti). Inoltre tutti presentavano solo un determinato tipo di tumore alla tiroide: il carcinoma papillare. E cioè lo stesso tipo di malattia che colpisce i giovani italiani con maggiore frequenza. Questo tipo di risultati, unito all'alta incidenza di altre malattie come la leucemia infantile»
Incidence of thyroid cancer in Italy, 1991-2005: time trends and age-period-cohort effects.
Dal Maso L, Lise M, Zambon P, Falcini F, Crocetti E, Serraino D, Cirilli C, Zanetti R, Vercelli M, Ferretti S, Stracci F, De Lisi V, Busco S, Tagliabue G, Budroni M, Tumino R, Giacomin A, Franceschi S; for AIRTUM Working Group.
Source
Epidemiology and Biostatistics Unit, Aviano Cancer Center, IRCCS, Aviano.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20952599
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18304904
Thyroid cancer 15 years after Chernobyl
Luc A Michel, Julian E Donckier
Sir
Yoshisada Shibata and colleagues1 recommend the urgent establishment of a global support system to provide careful and continuous follow-up for children exposed to short-lived radioactive fallout at the time of the Chernobyl accident. We completely agree with this recommendation.
We have been confronted with four similar cases of papillary thyroid carcinoma in young patients living in southeast Belgium, who were aged 10 years, 2 months, 2 years, and 6 years when the Chernobyl accident happened.2 At presentation, the patients were aged 17, 11, 10, and 19 years, respectively. They all presented fortuitously over 3 years, which is much higher than the normal rate of thyroidectomies among adults in our centre. Furthermore, since January, 2000, we have operated on five more girls who presented with thyroid papillary carcinoma who were aged 8, 8, 10, 11, and 12 years at the time of the Chernobyl accident.2
The incidence of thyroid cancers in Belarus and Ukraine rose just 4 years after the Chernobyl disaster, but the risk reaches a maximum 15—20 years after exposure and remains high for a further 20 years.3, 4 Although announced by the press, the question of whether the radioactive clouds passed over European countries has been controversial. We therefore questioned the Belgian Royal Institute of Meteorology (BRIM).5
It is difficult to make a firm statement on the dose links between these diagnosed thyroid cancers in young people and post-Chernobyl radioactive contamination. However, it is also difficult to say that such links do not exist. Thus, we think that clinicians should remain vigilant and that an epidemiological survey should been considered at a European level.
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(02)08754-8/fulltext
NATURE, Vol. 359, 3 SEPTEMBER 1992
SCIENTIFIC CORRESPONDENCE
Thyroid cancer after Chernobyl
SIR--We would like to report a great increase in the frequency of thyroid cancer in children in Belarus, which commenced in 1990 and continues. Table 1 shows the incidence of thyroid cancer in children in the six regions of Belarus and Minsk City from 1986 to the end of the first half of 1992. It can be seen that the overall incidence rose from an average of just four cases per year from 1986 to 1989 inclusive, to 55 in 1991 and is projected to be not less than 60 in 1992. This increase is not uniformly distributed across the country: for example, there is no significant increase in Mogilev, Minsk City or Vitebsk. By far the greatest increase is seen in the Gomel region, from one or two cases per year to 38 in 1991, and a less obvious increase is seen in the Brest and Grodno regions.
http://www.ratical.org/radiation/inetSeries/ChernyThyrd.html
