The considerable increase in the incidence of thyroid cancer in children in areas exposed to the fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear reactor accident has drawn attention to the need for a better understanding of the relationship between radiation exposure (especially from the radionuclides of iodine) and the risk of thyroid cancer. An increase in thyroid cancer has been reported both in patients exposed to therapeutic and diagnostic external radiation, and in the population exposed to radiation from the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs. While there is no evidence of a significant increase of this cancer in patients treated with radioactive iodine, an increase in thyroid cancer incidence was found in the Marshall Islands population after exposure to the fallout from a thermonuclear explosion, and now an increase has been observed in children exposed to the fallout from Chernobyl.This volume constitutes the proceedings of the first international conference on the relationship between radiation and thyroid cancer — a very important area of research. Besides addressing the link between radiation and thyroid cancer, it examines the many factors influencing the interactions between radiation and the thyroid cell.
