ABSTRACT
Background and Aim: the induction of cancer appears to be the most important effect of low-dose ionizing radiation occurring in an exposed population. The major cancers induced by whole-body radiation exposure are the breasts in women, thyroid, lung, skin cancers and leukemia. In developing countries 94% of the human radiation is from the natural sources. In Iran some high altitude regions such as Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari has a high level of the natural background radiation [higher than the world's average]. For this reason, investigation of the incidence of cancer, relevant to the radiation is very important in this province which is the aim of this study
Method: in this study 751 cases suffering from malignant cancer [based on ICD10] were investigated during a 5-year period [from 1998 to 2002]. Three hundred sixty-two cases suffering from skin, breast, lung, thyroid cancers or leukemia were selected. All data was obtained from health centers and pathological sections of relevant hospitals. Chi-square test was used for data analysis
Results: the prevalence of skin, breast, thyroid and lung cancers and leukemia as compared with total recorded cancers were about 20.5%, 7.5%, 2.6%, 1.1% and 16.2%, respectively. From all studied cases, 48.3% were male and 51.7% were female. There was significance relationship between sex and the cancer type [p<0.05]. The mean age of patients with skin, breast, thyroid and lung cancers and leukemia were found to be 62.98, 51.14, 44.6, 60.89 and 33.8 years, respectively. The total radiation induced cancer risk was greater for women than for men
Conclusion: the prevalence of skin, thyroid cancers and leukemia in this province was more than the other areas of Iran due to the high levels of the natural background radiation in this province