[Radiation-induced cancers: state of the art in 1997]

Scientists now have available a large amount of data dealing with radiation-induced neoplasms. These data went back to anecdotal observations which were made in the very first years of utilization of X-rays and radioactive elements. In fact, it is essentially the strict follow-up of the Japanese populations irradiated by the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombing which allowed a more precise evaluation of the carcinogenicity of ionizing radiations. Further refinements came from therapeutical irradiations: it is now possible to study large cohorts of patients given well-known doses in well-defined volumes and followed for more than 20 years. Last but not least, a significant increase in the incidence and mortality of thyroid cancer has been detected in children contaminated by iodine radioisotopes after the Tchernobyl accident. Recently, some data suggested the emergence of "clusters" of leukemias close to some nuclear facilities, but this question remains highly polemical, both in France and in the UK. Other questions are still waiting for a precise answer; of course, the extrapolation of our available data to very low doses delivered at very low dose rates, but also the carcinogenic risk at high doses. For these "high" doses (about 30 to 70 Gy), a competition between mutagenesis and cell killing was expected, so that these dose levels were expected to be less carcinogenic than lower (a few sieverts) doses. Actually, recent data suggest that the carcinogenic risk goes on increasing up to relatively important doses. In addition, carcinogenic factors, such as tabacco, anticancer chemotherapy and individual susceptibility, are found more and more to be closely intricated with ionizing radiation in the genesis of a given cancer. Even if a number of questions are still pending, the already available data allow specialists, both in medicine and radioprotection, to edict strict rules which can be reasonably expected to have significantly reduced the risk of radiation-induced neoplasms in most situations.