ArticleLeukemia2013
A record-based case-control study of natural background radiation and the incidence of childhood leukaemia and other cancers in Great Britain during 1980-2006.
Article in Leukemia, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 89 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
89 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Radon exposure and potential health effects other than lung cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in public health · 2024Pooled it
- Epidemiological Studies of Low-Dose Ionizing Radiation and Cancer: Rationale and Framework for the Monograph and Overview of Eligible Studies.Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Monographs · 2020Pooled it
- Epidemiological Studies of Low-Dose Ionizing Radiation and Cancer: Summary Bias Assessment and Meta-Analysis.Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Monographs · 2020Pooled it
- Evaluation of Confounding and Selection Bias in Epidemiological Studies of Populations Exposed to Low-Dose, High-Energy Photon Radiation.Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Monographs · 2020Pooled it
- If it is published in the peer-reviewed literature, it must be true?Pediatric radiology · 2014Pooled it
- Lymphoma and multiple myeloma in cohorts of persons exposed to ionising radiation at a young age.Leukemia · 2021Trial
- Radiation exposure from computerized tomography and risk of childhood leukemia: Finnish register-based case-control study of childhood leukemia (FRECCLE).Haematologica · 2018Trial
- Lymphoma, multiple myeloma and leukaemia incidence in regions of Belarus most heavily contaminated by the Chernobyl accident.International journal of cancer · 2026Article
- Health Implications of Radon Exposure Among Children: A Systematic Review.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Machine learning techniques for the prediction of indoor gamma-ray dose rates - Strengths, weaknesses and implications for epidemiology.Journal of environmental radioactivity · 2025Article
- Indoor radon exposure: A systematic review of radon-induced health risks and evidence quality using GRADE approach.Heliyon · 2024Article
- Article
- Childhood B cell leukemia: Intercepting the paths to progression.BioEssays : news and reviews in molecular, cellular and developmental biology · 2024Review
- A Historical Survey of Key Epidemiological Studies of Ionizing Radiation Exposure.Radiation research · 2024Review
- Revisiting an Inverse Dose-Fractionation Effect of Ionizing Radiation Exposure for Ischemic Heart Disease: Insights from Recent Studies.Radiation research · 2024Review
- Dose Reduction in Pediatric Oncology Patients with Delayed Total-Body [Journal of nuclear medicine : official publication, Society of Nuclear Medicine · 2024Article
- Radiation exposure and leukaemia risk among cohorts of persons exposed to low and moderate doses of external ionising radiation in childhood.British journal of cancer · 2023Article
- Preleukemic Fusion Genes Induced via Ionizing Radiation.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
- The Evidence for Excess Risk of Cancer and Non-Cancer Disease at Low Doses and Dose Rates.Radiation research · 2022Article
- Radioactive releases from the nuclear power sector and implications for child health.BMJ paediatrics open · 2022Review
29 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
Abstract
We conducted a large record-based case-control study testing associations between childhood cancer and natural background radiation. Cases (27,447) born and diagnosed in Great Britain during 1980-2006 and matched cancer-free controls (36,793) were from the National Registry of Childhood Tumours. Radiation exposures were estimated for mother's residence at the child's birth from national databases, using the County District mean for gamma rays, and a predictive map based on domestic measurements grouped by geological boundaries for radon. There was 12% excess relative risk (ERR) (95% CI 3, 22; two-sided P=0.01) of childhood leukaemia per millisievert of cumulative red bone marrow dose from gamma radiation; the analogous association for radon was not significant, ERR 3% (95% CI -4, 11; P=0.35). Associations for other childhood cancers were not significant for either exposure. Excess risk was insensitive to adjustment for measures of socio-economic status. The statistically significant leukaemia risk reported in this reasonably powered study (power ~50%) is consistent with high-dose rate predictions. Substantial bias is unlikely, and we cannot identify mechanisms by which confounding might plausibly account for the association, which we regard as likely to be causal. The study supports the extrapolation of high-dose rate risk models to protracted exposures at natural background exposure levels.
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