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. 2017 Jun 27;117(1):41-50.
doi: 10.1038/bjc.2017.141. Epub 2017 May 23.

High-energy particle beam and gamma radiation exposure, familial relatedness and cancer in mice

Pavel Chernyavskiy  1 , Elijah F Edmondson  2   3 , Michael M Weil  2 , Mark P Little  1
Affiliations

High-energy particle beam and gamma radiation exposure, familial relatedness and cancer in mice

Pavel Chernyavskiy et al. Br J Cancer. .

Abstract

Background: Some highly penetrant familial cancer syndromes exhibit elevated leukaemia risk, and there is evidence for familial clustering of lung cancer and other common cancers. Lung cancer and leukaemia are strongly radiogenic, but there are few indications that high-energy beam irradiation is markedly more effective than lower-energy radiation.

Methods: We used a Cox model with familially structured random effects to assess 16 mortality end points in a group of 1850 mice in 47 families maintained in a circular-breeding scheme, exposed to accelerated Si or Fe ions (0.4 Gy) or 137Cs gamma rays (3 Gy).

Results: There is periodicity in the effect of familial relatedness, which is most pronounced for pulmonary adenoma, Harderian-gland adenoma, Harderian-gland tumour, ectodermal tumour, pulmonary adenocarcinoma and hepatocellular carcinoma (P=0.0001/0.0003/0.0017/0.0035/0.0257/0.0340, respectively) with families that are 3-4 generations apart most strongly correlated; myeloid leukaemia also exhibited a striking periodic correlation structure. The relative risks of high-energy Si or Fe ions are not significantly different and are less than for 137Cs gamma-rays for most end points at the doses used.

Conclusions: There is periodicity in the effect of familial relatedness for various cancer sites. The effects per unit dose of high-energy charged particle beams are no higher than ninefold those of lower-energy gamma radiation.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Distribution of estimated family-specific relative risks for deaths and various cancer end points. A full colour version of this figure is available at the British Journal of Cancer journal online.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Autocorrelation of family-specific random effects for all deaths and various cancer end points in relation to distance apart of the family index number. Fisher g-test of periodicity P-values are given in panel legends.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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