Thyroid : official journal of the American Thyroid Association
-
An increase in the incidence of papillary thyroid cancer has been documented in individuals exposed to Chernobyl fallout in 1986. Experiments using cultured human cells have suggested that radiation can induce the ret/PTC1 rearrangement involving the ret proto-oncogene. To test the hypothesis that the ret/PTC1 rearrangement is involved in the pathogenesis of Chernobyl-associated papillary thyroid carcinomas, we studied a panel of 31 cases from Belarus. ⋯ Controls were positive in all 31 cases. Nine cases yielded a positive PCR product for the ret/PTC1 rearrangement (29%). Thus, the ret/PTC1 rearrangement is a feature of some Chernobyl-associated papillary thyroid cancers, and is one possible mechanism involved in the pathogenesis of these cancers.