Leukemia: Lessons from the japanese experience

Probably more has been learned about radiation‐induced leukemia from intensive study of Japanese atomic bomb survivors than about radiation damage to any other organ system. This has been the result of an intensive binational effort at the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission and the Radiation Effects Research Foundation in Hiroshima and Nagasaki to monitor the occurrence of leukemia in a large group of atomic bomb survivors over a period of more than 50 years (the Life Span Study). The focus in the leukemia studies has been on disease latency, time of peak incidence rates, clinical course, shape of the dose‐response curve and changes in risk over time for various types of leukemia in relationship to shielded kerma and bone marrow radiation dose, age at time of exposure, and gender. The extreme understanding and cooperation of the Japanese atomic bomb survivors, control subjects, physicians of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, government authorities, and the citizens of both cities has resulted in an epidemiological study that is almost unparalleled in medical history. Stem Cells 1997: 15(suppl 2): 135‐139