Table 1.

Summary of select publications on low-dose radiation and cancer published after 2006

First author, year	Design	Study population	Follow-up	Age at exposure	Exposure assessment	Doses	Effect estimate
Medical exposures
Ronckers, 2008	Cohort	3,010 women with spinal curvature	Spinal curvature diagnosis (1912–65) through survey/interview (1992–93)	0–19 years	Medical record abstraction, doses estimated from radiographs	Mean cumulative dose to breast=12.1 cGy	Breast cancer incidence: ERR/Gy=2.86, 95% CI −0.07, 8.62
Rajaraman, 2010	Case-control	2,690 childhood cancer cases; 4,858 controls from UK Childhood Cancer Study	n/a	In utero or early infancy (0–100 days)	Medical record abstraction, any vs no exposure to diagnostic X-rays	Not available	All cancer incidence: OR (in utero)=1.14, 95% CI 0.90, 1.45; OR (infancy)=1.16, 95% CI 0.83, 1.62 Leukemia incidence: OR(in utero)=1.36, 95% CI 0.91, 2.02; OR (infancy)=1.39, 95% CI 0.87, 2.23 Acute myeloid leukemia incidence: OR(in utero)=1.36, 95% CI 0.91, 2.02; OR (infancy)=1.63, 95% CI 0.42, 6.35
Pearce, 2012	Cohort	>175,000 patients in Great Britain who underwent a CT scan in childhood/adolescence	CT scan year (1985–2002) through 2008	0–21 years	Medical record abstraction, RBM, and brain doses estimated from CT scans	Not provided	Leukemia and myelodysplasia incidence: ERR/mGy=0.036, 95% CI 0.005, 0.120 Brain tumor incidence: ERR/mGy=0.023, 95% CI 0.010 0.049
Mathews, 2013	Cohort	Individuals from Australian Medicare records, exposed (n=680,000) and unexposed (>10,000,000) to CT scans in childhood/adolescence	CT scan year (1985–2005) through 2007	0–19 years	Medical record abstraction, effective, RBM, and brain doses estimated from CT scans	Collective effective dose (1-year lag)= 3,900 Sv (4.5 mSv per scan)	Solid cancer incidence (other than brain cancer): ERR/mGy=0.027, 95% CI 0.017, 0.037 Leukemias and myelodysplasia incidence: ERR/mGy=0.039, 95% CI 0.014, 0.070 Brain cancer incidence: ERR/mGy=0.021, 95% CI 0.014, 0.029
Environmental exposures
Krestinina, 2013	Cohort	28,223 residents of the Russian Southern Urals exposed to multiple radionuclides, primarily strontium, from production of nuclear weapons	1953–2007	Majority <20 years	TRDS-2009 dosimetry system; based on external and internal dose estimates	Mean cumulative RBM dose=0.42 Gy (range 0–9 Gy)	Leukemia: ERR/mGy=0.12, 95% CI 0.04, 0.25 Leukemia (excluding CLL): ERR/mGy=0.22, 95% CI 0.08,0.54 Leukemia subtypes also examined (data not shown)
Schonfeld, 2013	Cohort	29,730 residents of the Russian Southern Urals exposed to multiple radionuclides, primarily strontium, from production of nuclear weapons	1950–2007	Majority <20 years	TRDS-2009 dosimetry system; based on external and internal dose estimates	Mean cumulative stomach dose five years prior to end of follow-up=0.035 Gy (range: 0–0.96 Gy)	Solid cancer mortality: ERR/Gy=0.61, 95% CI 0.04, 1.27
Kendall, 2013	Case-control	27,447 cancer and non-malignant brain tumor cases and 36,793 controls in Great Britain	n/a	At birth	Exposure from cosmic rays and radon in the home was estimated for residences at birth using the County District mean gamma-ray dose-rates from cosmic rays and exposure to radon and a predictive map based on domestic measurements for radon	Mean cumulative RBM equivalent dose from birth to diagnosis (controls)= 4.0 mSv (range: 0–31 mSv), with radon contributing about 10% of the dose, on average	Leukemia: ERR/mSv=0.12, 95% CI 0.03–0.22 Lymphoid leukemia: ERR/mSv=0.13, 95% CI 0.02–0.24
Occupational exposures
Cardis, 2007	Collaborative cohort study	407,391 workers in 15 countries from 154 facilities who received exposure predominantly from higher-energy photon radiation (X-ray and gamma), worked in the facility for 1+ years, and monitored for external radiation exposure	Variable	Variable	Dosimetric history was reconstructed using recorded photon doses from individual facilities and/or national dose registries	Mean cumulative dose=19.4 mSv	All-cause mortality: ERR/Sv=0.42, 90% CI 0.07, 0.79 Cancer mortality: ERR/Sv=0.97, 90% CI 0.28, 1.77 Leukemia (excluding CLL) mortality: ERR/Sv=1.93, 90% CI <0, 7.14 Lung cancer mortality: ERR/Sv=1.86, 90% CI 0.49, 3.63 Non-significant positive associations for multiple myeloma, liver, and pancreatic cancer mortality (31 malignancies examined in total)
Kesminiene, 2008	Nested case-control study	117 leukemia cases, 34 NHL cases, 14 other hematological malignancies and 481 matched controls nested in Belarus, Russian, and Baltic cohorts of Chernobyl liquidators	n/a	Adults	RADRUE used to assess individual dose from external radiation received during clean-up mission; combined work history data with field radioactivity measurements	Average reported doses were 170 mGy in 1986 and decreased from year to year	Leukemia: ERR/100 mGy=0.60, 90% −0.02, 2.35 Leukemia (excluding CLL): ERR/100 mGy=0.50, 90% CI −0.38, 5.70 NHL: ERR/100 mGy=2.81, 90% CI 0.09, 24.30
Muirhead, 2009	Cohort	174,541 nuclear workers in the National Registry for Radiation Workers (NRRW) in the UK	1955 (or date started working or date from which full dose data were available) through 2001	Adults	Surface exposure from personal dosimeters, mostly X- and γ-rays but also particles and neutrons	Mean cumulative dose: 24.9 mSv	Cancer (excluding leukemia) incidence: ERR/Sv=0.27, 90% CI 0.04, 0.51 Leukemia (excluding CLL) incidence: ERR/Sv=1.78, 90% CI 0.17, 4.36 Significant positive associations for rectal cancer, skin cancer, non-melanoma skin cancer, and multiple myeloma incidence (29 malignancies examined in total) Mortality also examined (results not shown)
Zablotska, 2013	Nested case-control study	137 leukemia cases, 65 CLL cases and 863 controls in the Ukranian cohort of Chernobyl liquidators	n/a	Adults	RADRUE used to assess individual dose from external radiation received during clean-up mission; combined work history data with field radioactivity measurements	Mean bone marrow dose=132.3 mGy (cases) and 81.8 mGy (controls)	Leukemia: ERR/Gy=2.38, 95% CI 0.49, 5.87 Leukemia (excluding CLL): ERR/Gy=2.21, 95% CI 0.05, 7.61 CLL: ERR/Gy=2.58, 95% CI 0.02, 8.43