Cancer risk from low dose radiation depends directly on the organ mass in a general model of radiation-induced cancer risk

• Published in: Health physics (1958) Vol. 106; no. 4; p. 459
• Main Author: Lin, Z W
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 01.04.2014
• Subjects: Body Size; Body Weight; Dose-Response Relationship, Radiation; Female; Humans; Male; Models, Theoretical; Neoplasms, Radiation-Induced - epidemiology; Neoplasms, Radiation-Induced - etiology; Organ Size; Radiation Dosage; Risk Assessment
• ISSN: 1538-5159
• DOI: 10.1097/HP.0b013e3182a829cb

Current methods of evaluating radiation-induced cancer risk depend on the organ dose but not explicitly on extensive quantities such as the organ mass. However, at the same organ dose, one may expect the larger number of cells in a larger organ to lead to a higher cancer risk. Here the author introduces organ- and radiation type-specific cell cancer risk coefficients and obtains analytical relations between cancer risk and the radiation environment, which contains the dependence of cancer risk on organ masses. The excess cancer risk induced by low dose radiation for an organ is shown to be directly proportional to the organ mass. Therefore the total excess risk for all solid cancers depends directly on organ masses and consequently on body weight or size. This method is also being compared with three existing methods of evaluating the radiation-induced cancer risk, and special cases where this formulation matches each method are demonstrated. The results suggest that the direct dependence of cancer risk on organ masses needs to be checked against existing epidemiological data and, if verified, should be included in the methodology for the evaluation of radiation-induced cancer risk, in particular the individual risk. This dependence is also expected to affect the cancer risk transport from one population group to another that is different in organ mass, body weight or height.