63
Table 35

Cancer Cases Among Marshallese
up to 20 Years Post Exposure
Case No.

Age and Sex

Type

Year of death

Exposed Rongelap (82 people)
62
60 F
Ovarian
30
60 F
Cervix*
13

68
at
18
6+
72

7iF

64M
18M
35 F
41 F
22 F

Uterus*

Stomach
Leukemia
Thyroid
Thyroid
Thyroid

Unexposed Rongelap (~ 190 people)

861

68 F

Exposed Utirik (157 people)

2122

2229

87M
37 F

1959
1962

1956

—

1974
1972

Cervix*

1960

Rectum *

1959

Thyroid

*Diagnosis not confirmed by autopsy.

other forms of malignancy are beginning to show
correlations,1*7
The cases of malignancy recorded among the
various Marshallese populations under study during the past 20 years are listed in Table 35. In
these people, thyroid malignancies (discussed
above) showa correlation with radiation exposure;
other types cannot beascribed definitely to radia-

Figure 49. Subject No. 54 at age 1 year, a monthafter
exposure to fallout, when he had spotty epilation and

scattered beta burn lesions on the scalp, neck, arms,legs,

and anal region.

tion exposure.

A.A CASE OF ACUTE MYELOGENOUS
LEUKEMIA

In 1972 an exposed Rongelap male (subject No.
54) died of leukemia at age 19.146 He had been

exposed to 175 rads of gamma radiation on Ron-

gelap at age 1 year, and had experienced early
transient symptoms, nausea and vomiting and
itching and burningofthe skin. He showed moderate depression of lymphocytes, platelets, and
neutrophils, his WBC dropping to 3900 by 6 weeks
and his platelets to 140,000 by 4 weeks. He developed beta burnsofthe skin, particularly over the
neck, arms, and legs, and someepilation of the
scalp (Figure 49). These lesions healed uneventfully. His blood elements showed slow recovery
toward normallevels by 1 year. He remained generally healthy, with usual childhood infections,
until age 13, when nodules developed in the thyroid and he was taken to the U.S. for study (Fig-

Figure 50. Subject No. 54 being examined at age 13.

ure 50). The nodules removed at surgery (including a Hiirthle cell adenoma) were benign. He was
placed on continuous thyroid hormonetreatment
and remained euthyroid, with normal growth and

development. (His mother, father, and two broth-

ers also had thyroid lesions surgically removed.)

PRIVACY ACT MATERIAL REMOVED

Select target paragraph3