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
71iF
Uterus*
68
64M
Stomach
a4
18M
Leukemia
18
35 F
Thyroid
64
72
+1F
22 F
68 F
1959
1962
1956
1974
1972
Thyroid
Thyroid
Unexposed Rongelap (~ 190 people)
861
Yearof death
Cervix*
Exposed Utirik (157 people)
2122
87M
Rectum*
2229
37 F
Thyroid
1960
1959
*Diagnosis not confirmed by autopsy.
other forms of malignancy are beginning to show
correlations.!77
The cases of malignancy recorded among the
various Marshallese populations under study dur-
Figure 49. Subject No. 54 at age 1 year, a month after
exposure to fallout, when he had spotty epilation and
scattered beta burn lesions on the scalp, neck, arms,legs,
and analregion.
ing the past 20 years are listed in Table 35. In
these people, thyroid malignancies (discussed
above) showa 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 1 vear, and had experienced early
transient symptoms, nausea and vomiting and
itching and burning ofthe skin. He showed moderate depression of lymphocytes, platelets, and
neutrophils, his WBC droppingto 3900 by 6 weeks
and his platelets to 140,000 by 4 weeks. He devel-
oped beta burns of the skin, particularly over the
Figure 50. Subject No. 54 being examined at age 13.
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 hewas taken to the US. for study (Fig-
ure 50). The nodules removedat surgery (including a Hiirthle cell adenoma) were benign. He was
placed on continuous thyroid hormonetreatment
and remained euthyroid, with normal growth and
neck, arms, and legs, and some epilation ofthe
development. (His mother, father, and two broth-
ers also had thyroid lesions surgically removed. }