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as in the Marshallese is whether.thyioids being cperated for the
be subjected to total thyroidectomy.
[gross lesions should
Very often the malignant leBion found in an ir-
radiated gland is not the lesion that prampted exploration.
Between 1956 and 1960 when the risk of carcinoma of the thyrpid following radiation to the head and neck became an issue, we had available the rpcords of 200 indi-
viduals who had received x-radiation between 1939 and 1949 for
lymphadenitis in this hospital.
amined for thyroid nodules.
explored.
Of those that were living, 60
There were 12 found to have masses
Three carcinomas were found; the remaining were ad
10 thyroids were
Post-mortem
records of one additional patient in the group showed carcinama.
additional lesion
of the several removed and considered to have been an "atypical
enoma’' has recentl:
recurred and now shows microscopic features of carcinoma.
PARTICIPATION IN OTHER WORK IN THIS LABORATORY
CONCERNING RADIATION EFFECTS
In recent years, the principal investigator has. participated
projects concerned with radiation effects on the thyroid.
Marly
in several other
the observations
and analyses of findings have contributed to the investigation
1.
The opportunity to study the Marshallese patients has been
This is a very unique situation where a low but a critically oncdgenic dose of radioiodines reached the thyroid of normal persons.
These were n
to hyperplastic thyroids of Graves' disease treated with T31y
are more sensitive to radiation than the former.
thyroids in contras
cells of the latt
This differenca is illustrated by t
far greater dose of 131; necessary to cause therapeutic reductior in function of the
normal thyroid of the cardiac patient than the amount used to pratuce a similar effec
in the hyperplastic gland of Graves' disease.
Thus, it may be
ceived, the radiation effect was far less in the Marshallese where
than in Graves's disease where neoplasms are rarely produced. Thq
ed that rad for r
neoplasms were for
similarity between