Do Gamma Rays and Alpha Particles Cause Different Types of Lung Cancer?
C.E. Land (INVITED) Excess lung cancer risk has been associated with exposure to alpha particle radiation from inhaled radon daughter products among uranium miners in Czechoslovakia, Canada, The United States, and elsewhere, and with exposure to gamma rays and neutrons from the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. Differences in Distribution by histological type, as well as certain epidemiological differences, suggest the possibility of differences in the causation of radiation-induced lung cancer. An epidemiological analysis is summarised of results from a blind pathology panel review of tissue slides from lung cancer cases diagnosed in 108 Japanese A bomb survivors and 92 American uranium miners selected on the basis of radiation exposure, smoking history, sex, age, and source and quality of pathology material. Consensus diagnoses were obtained with respect to principal sub-type, including squamous cell cancer, small cell cancer, adenocarcinoma, and less frequent sub-typ
