63
Table 35
Cancer Cases Among Marshallese
up to 20 Years Post Exposure
Case No.
Age and Sex
Type
Year ofdeath
Exposed Rongelap (82 people)
62
30
60 F
Ovarian
1959
TLE
Uterus*®
1956
60 F
13
68
34
18
64
72
64M
-- 18M
' 35F
41F
22 F
Cervix*
1962
Stomach
Leukemia
Thyroid
Thyroid
Thyroid
Unexposed Ronge'p (~~ 190 people)
861
68 F
Cervix*
Exposed Utirik ( 7people)
2122
2229
37 P
1974
1972
1960
Rectum *
1959
Thyroid
*Diagnosis not confirmed by autopsy.
other forms of malignancy are beginning to show
correlations. 177
The cases of malignancy recorded among the
various Marshallese populations under study during the past 20 years are listed in Tabie 35. In
these people, thyroid malignancies (discussed
above) show a correlation with radiation exposure;
other types cannotbe ascribed definitely to radia-
Figure 49, Subject No. 54 at age | year, a month afer
exposure to fallout, when he had sporty epilation and
scattered beta burn lesions on the scalp, neck, arms,legs,
and anai region.
tion exposure.
A. A CASE OF ACUTE MYELOGENOUS
LEUKEMIA
In 1972 an exposed Rongelap male (subject No.
54) died of leukemia at age 19.448 He had been
exposed to 175 rads of gammaradiation on Rongelap at age | year, 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 4weeks. He developed beta burns of 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 normal levels by 1 year. He remained generally healthy, with usual childhood infections,
until age 13, when nodules developed in the thy- ©
roid =“ taken to the U.S. for study (Fig-
IOCb 160
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.)
PRIVACY ACT MATERIAL REMOVED