PRIVACY ACT MATERIAL REMOVED

63

Table 35

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

Age and Sex

Type

Exposed Rongelap (82 people)
62
60 F
Ovarian
30
60 F
Cervix*
13
71F
Uterus*
68
64M
Stomach
54
18M
Leukemia
18
35 F
Thyroid
6+
41 F
Thyroid
72
22F
Thyroid
Unexposed Rongelap (~ 190 people)
861
68 F
Cervix®
Exposed Uurik (157 people)

2122
2229

87M
37 F

Rectum*
Thvroid

Year of death
1959
1962
1956
1974
1972

1960

1959

“Diagnosis not confirmed by autopsy.

other forms of malignancy are beginning to show
correlations.177
The cases of malignancy recorded amongthe
various Marshallese populations under study during the past 20 years are listed itn Table 35. In
these people, thyroid malignancies (discussed

Figure 49. Subject No. 54 at age I year, a monthafter
exposure to fallout, when he had spotty epilation and
scattered beta burn lesions on the scalp, neck, arms,legs,
and anairegion.

above) show a correlation with radiation exposure;

other types cannotbe ascribed definitely to radiation 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 gammaradiation on Rongelap at age | vear, and had experienced early
transient symptoms, nausea and vomiting and
itching and burning of the skin. He showed moderate depression of lymphocytes, platelets, and
neutrophils, his WBC dropping to 3900 by 6 weeks

andhis platelets to 140,000 by 4 weeks. He devel-

oped beta burnsof the skin, particularly over the
neck, arms, and legs, and some epilation of the
scalp (Figure 49). These lesions healed uneventfully. His blood elements showed slow recovery
toward normallevels by | 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 brothers also had thyroid lesions surgically removed.)

Select target paragraph3