Adult Leukemia Risk and Diagnostic X-Rays: A Reanalysis of the Tri-State Leukemia Survey Data

摘要

The present study examined adult leukemia risk as a function of X-ray exposure in a data set consisting of 1414 leukemia cases and 1370 controls, using Mantel-Haenszel odds ratio procedures to calculate relative risk for 30 sex/leukemia type/X-ray exposure type categories and between 1 and 6 dose levels (measured as number of films). Risk of contracting pneumonia and heart disease for four time periods prior to leukemia diagnosis is also determined. The main finding is that significant excess risk is restricted to two sex/leukemia type/X-ray exposure type categories, males with acute and chronic myeloid leukemia and more than 40 trunk X-rays. Several sex/leukemia type/X-ray exposure types with risks significantly less than 1.0 were also observed. Association of pneumonia and heart disease with leukemia appear to be the result of a reporting bias in that most significant excess incidence of these diseases in leukemics is within 6 months of leukemia diagnosis. Overall, our results suggest that X-ray related excess leukemia risk is small.