Exposed to Radiation? Can you get Leukaemia?

Ionizing radiation is a one of the main aetiological factors of leukaemia. So, if you have exposed to higher amount of radiation, you can get leukaemia. The good news is that everybody who get exposed to radiation does not develop leukaemia. Only a proportion does. It has been found that only a  1 per 60 heavily irradiated patients have developed leukaemia.

What are the ways that you can get exposed to radiation? Who are the people that get exposed to radiation?

There are different kinds of radiation, at different levels in the environment we live. But, all of these radiations are not powerful enough to cause leukaemia in our body. The body should get exposed to a very high amount of radiation to develop leukaemia. There are people who were exposed to full body radiation who did not develop leukaemia. Following are some major ways of getting exposed to radiation.

·         Survivors of nuclear bomb explosions.

·         Patients with ankylosing spondylitis. They are treated with radiation therapy to the spine.

Such people do not develop leukaemia right after. There is a latent period of about 5 years.

Out of the four types of leukaemia, only three are caused by irradiation. They are,

1.      Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia

2.      Acute myeloblastic leukaemia

3.      Chronic myeloid leukaemia

Chronic lymphcytic leukaemia is not caused by irradiation.

How radiation cause leukaemia?

Leukaemia is a cancer of white blood cells. Cancers are abnormally proliferating cells. The white cells in our body, just like many other cells in our body age and die. So, there are cells which proliferate and generate new cells to replace the dead cells. This process occurs in the bone marrow, which is situated within the cavities of the bones. In leukaemia these cells proliferate abnormally, so they produce a lot of cells more than the normal number. This abnormal proliferation is triggered by radiation.

To understand this more clearly you should have a general idea about how the cell proliferation is controlled. The velocity of a division is controlled by the genes, which are present is the nucleus of the cells. When these genetic material gets exposed to radiation, their structure changes. So, the genes that stop cell division becomes defective. This allows the cells to proliferate abnormally.