Solid Cancer Incidence in the Techa River Incidence Cohort: 1956–2007

Previously reported studies of the Techa River Cohort have established associations between radiation dose and the occurrence of solid cancers and leukemia (non-CLL) that appear to be linear in dose response. These analyses include 17,435 cohort members alive and not known to have had cancer prior to January 1, 1956 who lived in areas near the river or Chelyabinsk City at some time between 1956 and the end of 2007, utilized individualized dose estimates computed using the Techa River Dosimetry System 2009 and included five more years of follow-up. The median and mean dose estimates based on these doses are consistently higher than those based on earlier Techa River Dosimetry System 2000 dose estimates. This article includes new site-specific cancer risk estimates and risk estimates adjusted for available information on smoking. There is a statistically significant (P = 0.02) linear trend in the smoking-adjusted all-solid cancer incidence risks with an excess relative risk (ERR) after exposure to 100 mGy of 0.077 with a 95% confidence interval of 0.013–0.15. Examination of site-specific risks revealed statistically significant radiation dose effects only for cancers of the esophagus and uterus with an ERR per 100 mGy estimates in excess of 0.10. Esophageal cancer risk estimates were modified by ethnicity and sex, but not smoking. While the solid cancer rates are attenuated when esophageal cancer is removed (ERR = 0.063 per 100 mGy), a dose-response relationship is present and it remains likely that radiation exposure has increased the risks for most solid cancers in the cohort despite the lack of power to detect statistically significant risks for specific sites.