Chronic Radiation, Beneficial to Human Beings
A number of researches (Scott, Antonadou, et al., Ragaz, et al.), support the conclusion reached by Chen, et al. (6), that frequent radiation is effective in preventing cancer. Chronic radiation has been described as the type of radiation that is given little by little or in small quantities from a range of sources. It is entirely dissimilar in nature to the delicate gamma emission produced from atomic bombs blasts. Chen, et al. (7), gave insight to this wisdom, by confirming that individuals who have been exposed to more than normal environment radiation are at a lower risk of developing cancer.
Radiation therapy has been used to cure and prevent cancer from increasing. When administered in high dosages, radiation destroys or decelerates the increase of cancer cells. Exposure to controlled radiation has been shown to slow down symptoms of cancer particularly when treatment is not feasible. Radiation therapy can reduce swellings that accompany cancer in order to ease pressure. Such radiation treatments are used to treat cancer related health problems cancer such as pain and blindness. Radiation treatment does not destroy cancer cells immediately. It takes several day or even months of treatment before malignancy cells begin to die.
Although Chen, et al. (7), confirmed that individuals who have been exposed to more than normal environment radiation are at a lower risk of developing cancer, radiations such as gamma and X-rays affect healthy cells. The healthy cells affected by radiation during chemotherapy usually recover after cancer management has ended. Nevertheless, occasionally cancer patients may experience several side effects that worsen or improve with time. Chen, et al. (6), conclusion that low doses of radiation are beneficial has had an impact on medicine as chronic radiations are used to manage onset cancer. Modern medicine balances radiation doses in chemotherapy by ensuring that the doses are sufficient to destroy malignancy cells and little enough to reduce injury to healthy cells.
During and after surgery, doctors administer radiation doses to patients, to shrink tumors and destroy remaining cancer cells respectively. Occasionally, radiation treatment is administered in surgery so that it moves directly to the malignancy, bypassing the skin. This type of radiation is known as intraoperative radiation.
In their study Chen, et al. (8), found out that radiation contamination happed during the reprocessing of metal fragments when a radioactive Cobalt-60 supply was combined with metal pieces, liquefied and made into steel rod in the factory. Oblivious of the contagion, the steel rods, were in the end used to construct residential houses, where over 10,000 people lived. The inhabitants of the dwellings were exposed to constant emission for 9-21 years. It is estimated that these residences received about 50-600 mSv/y dose of radiation every year. The inhabitant’s full amount doses accrued in twenty-one years can be estimated using Cobalt-60 half-life of 5.3 years, and resulted in a dose of 0.4-6 Sv, an amount that surpassed the doses received by Hiroshima and Chernobyl victims (Delfino and Day, 38).
Before Chen, et al. (6) concluded that chronic radiations reduce the risk of cancer, a scientist by the name Dr. Luckey, had predicted the advantageous health outcomes of radiation. Dr. Luckey, who came up with the “Complete Dose-Response Curve” had showed that a constant radiation dosage of approximately 100 mSv/y was optimal to human wellbeing with about 10 Sv/y of radiation yet being in the hormetic limit. Chen, et al. (8) results confirmed Dr. Luckey’s proposal. He had proposed that, cancer rates among Americans would decrease by half every year, stipulation that the inhabitants are given an extra radiation dosage through the community health. Dr. Luckey’s and Chen, et al. (6) findings provide a base for initiating research into finding radiation-based vaccines to cure and prevent all types of cancers.
Gamma Rays Exposure
Exposure to most forms of radiation such as X and Gamma rays, even at reduced dosage levels amplify the risk of cancer ascertains (Hwang, Guo and Hsieh, 849). Gamma rays are ionizing emissions that have been confirmed as a human carcinogen. Confirming this claim are countless and diverse sources, such as experimental studies done on Hiroshima atomic blast survivors, and Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe, besides individuals exposed to high amounts of radiation during cancer treatments and other circumstances, intentionally or unintentionally (Hwang, Guo and Hsieh, 853).
The majority of researches on radiation along with cancer dangers have involved individuals exposed to extremely high amounts of radiation in some of the environments described (National Research Council, 79). It is difficult to determine less significant increase in cancer threat that originate from lesser amounts of radiation contact. Most research has not sufficiently detected increased dangers of malignancy among inhabitants exposed to small amounts of radiation. For instance, inhabitants of high altitudes areas are at a higher exposure to natural radiation cosmic rays than populations living in lower altitudes such as coast regions.
However, these populations lack evidently higher malignancy rates. Yet, the majority of the researchers as well as regulatory agencies concur that even lesser dosages of ionizing emissions amplify malignancy risk, though by an extremely small amount.
Generally, the threat of cancer from ionizing radiation contacts enlarges as the amount of radiation rises. Similarly, the lesser the contact is, the less significant is the increase in threat. However, most scientists suppose there is no threshold beneath which ionizing emissions are considered totally harmless (Delfino and Day, 37).
Cancers Associated with Ionizing Radiation
Though radiation contact influences the rate of different types of melanoma, it does not have an effect on their propensity to enlarge as well as spread. Ionizing radiations such as X-rays and Gamma rays add to the risk of particular forms of melanoma more than others do. Specifically, the bone marrow along with the thyroid gland, are mostly susceptible to radiation exposures. Leukemia, or malignancy of the human bone core, is the predominantly widespread radiation-induced melanoma (Delfino and Day, 33).
Leukemia may emerge as untimely as not many years following radiation contact. Other categories of malignancy may also outcome from emission contact, even though they may take an extended time to grow, typically between ten to fifteen years. A few of the additional malignancies, most strongly associated with radiation contact discussed in most accessible research studies include, lung, skin, breast, stomach and thyroid cancers.
These categories of cancers associated with emission are also influenced by the region of the human body that is bares the radiation. Additional factors could as well play a part in how likely an individual exposed to emission is to grow malignant cells. Age is a factor in cancer because kid’s developing bodies are more susceptible to ionizing radiations than adults are.
Work Cited
Antonadou, Dosia, et al. “Randomized phase III trial of radiation treatment ± amifostine in patients with advanced-stage lung cancer.” International Journal of Radiation Oncology 51.4 (2001): 915-922. Print.
Chen, W.L., et al. “Is Chronic Radiation an Effective Prophylaxis Against Cancer?” Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons 9.1 (2004): 6-10. Print.
Delfino, Michelangelo and Mary E. Day. Cancer: we live and die by radiation. Los Altos, Calif.: MoBeta Pub., 2006. Print.
Hwang, S. L., et al. “Cancer risks in a population with prolonged low dose-rate gamma radiation exposure in radio contaminated buildings, 1983 – 2002.” Int. J. Radiat. Biol. 82.12 (2006): 849-858. Print.
National Research Council (U.S.). Committee to Assess Health Risks from Exposure to Low Level of Ionizing Radiation. Health risks from exposure to low levels of ionizing radiation: BEIR VII Phase 2. Washington: National Academies Press, cop., 2006. Print.
Ragaz, Joseph. “Locoregional Radiation Therapy in Patients with High-Risk Breast Cancer Receiving Adjuvant Chemotherapy: 20-Year Results of the British Columbia Randomized Trial.” JNCI J Natl Cancer Inst 97.2 (2005): 116-126. Print.
Scott, Bobby R. “Low-dose radiation risk extrapolation fallacy associated with the linear-no-threshold model.” Hum Exp Toxicol 27.2 (2008): 163-168. Print.