Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 May 2;98(11):1673-1683.
doi: 10.1080/09553002.2022.2063962. Print 2022.

Age effects on radiation response: summary of a recent symposium and future perspectives

Mark P Little  1 , Alina V Brenner  2 , Eric J Grant  2 , Hiromi Sugiyama  2 , Dale L Preston  3 , Ritsu Sakata  2 , John Cologne  2 , Raquel Velazquez-Kronen  4 , Mai Utada  2 , Kiyohiko Mabuchi  1 , Kotaro Ozasa  2 , John D Olson  5 , Gregory O Dugan  5 , Simonetta Pazzaglia  6 , J Mark Cline  5 , Kimberly E Applegate  7
Affiliations

Age effects on radiation response: summary of a recent symposium and future perspectives

Mark P Little et al. Int J Radiat Biol. .

Abstract

One of the principal uncertainties when estimating population risk of late effects from epidemiological data is that few radiation-exposed cohorts have been followed up to extinction. Therefore, the relative risk model has often been used to estimate radiation-associated risk and to extrapolate risk to the end of life. Epidemiological studies provide evidence that children are generally at higher risk of cancer induction than adults for a given radiation dose. However, the strength of evidence varies by cancer site and questions remain about site-specific age at exposure patterns. For solid cancers, there is a large body of evidence that excess relative risk (ERR) diminishes with increasing age at exposure. This pattern of risk is observed in the Life Span Study (LSS) as well as in other radiation-exposed populations for overall solid cancer incidence and mortality and for most site-specific solid cancers. However, there are some disparities by endpoint in the degree of variation of ERR with exposure age, with some sites (e.g., colon, lung) in the LSS incidence data showing no variation, or even increasing ERR with increasing age at exposure. The pattern of variation of excess absolute risk (EAR) with age at exposure is often similar, with EAR for solid cancers or solid cancer mortality decreasing with increasing age at exposure in the LSS. We shall review the human data from the Japanese LSS cohort, and a variety of other epidemiological data sets, including a review of types of medical diagnostic exposures, also some radiobiological animal data, all bearing on the issue of variations of radiation late-effects risk with age at exposure and with attained age. The paper includes a summary of several oral presentations given in a Symposium on "Age effects on radiation response" as part of the 67th Annual Meeting of the Radiation Research Society, held virtually on 3-6 October 2021.

Keywords: Ionizing radiation; Japanese atomic bomb survivors; age at exposure; attained age; in vivo radiobiological data.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Summary of genetic background effects on radiation risk for cancer and non-cancer pathologies. P2: postnatal day 2.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Ainsbury EA, Dalke C, Mancuso M, Kadhim M, Quinlan RA, Azizova T, Dauer LT, Dynlacht JR, Tanner R, Hamada N. 2022. Introduction to the Special LDLensRad Focus Issue. Radiat Res 197(1):1–6. - PubMed
    1. Andrews RN, Bloomer EG, Olson JD, Hanbury DB, Dugan GO, Whitlow CT, Cline JM. 2020. Non-human primates receiving high-dose total-body irradiation are at risk of developing cerebrovascular injury years postirradiation. Radiat Res 194(3):277–287. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Andrews RN, Metheny-Barlow LJ, Peiffer AM, Hanbury DB, Tooze JA, Bourland JD, Hampson RE, Deadwyler SA, Cline JM. 2017. Cerebrovascular remodeling and neuroinflammation is a late effect of radiation-induced brain injury in non-human primates. Radiat Res 187(5):599–611. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Angel E, Wellnitz CV, Goodsitt MM, Yaghmai N, DeMarco JJ, Cagnon CH, Sayre JW, Cody DD, Stevens DM, Primak AN, et al. 2008. Radiation dose to the fetus for pregnant patients undergoing multi-detector ct imaging: Monte Carlo simulations estimating fetal dose for a range of gestational age and patient size. Radiology 249(1): 220–227. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Antonelli F, Campa A, Esposito G, Giardullo P, Belli M, Dini V, Meschini S, Simone G, Sorrentino E, Gerardi S, et al. 2015. Induction and repair of DNA DSB as revealed by H2AX phosphorylation foci in human fibroblasts exposed to low- and high-LET radiation: relationship with early and delayed reproductive cell death. Radiat Res 183(4):417–431. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources