Philadelphia, PA Virginia A. LiVolsi, MD, Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, will be a key presenter at the "Living with Radiation in the Modern World: Commemorating Chernobyl, Remembering Hiroshima / Nagasaki," conference to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor meltdown. An expert in thyroid pathology, Dr. LiVolsi will present her work on, "Specific Pathological Findings in Thyroid Cancer after Radiation Exposure." The conference, to be held April 20th at the United Nations Building in New York City, is co-sponsored by the World Information Transfer and the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary.

Just before dawn on April 26th, 1986, the Number Four nuclear reactor at Chernobyl exploded. The fallout was 400 times more radioactive than what was released over Hiroshima during World War II, and it covered an area the size of New Jersey. Numerous radioactive elements were released into the air including radioactive iodine, an element that is preferentially taken-up by the thyroid gland. As a result, there was a rise in cancer and, in particular, in thyroid cancer in children. (Since the thyroids of children are much smaller than adults, it is assumed that the relative dose of radioactive iodine these thyroids received was much larger than the adult thyroids.)

Following the accident, an international panel of experts was formed to study the after-effects of the accident. One group of specialists including pathologists who, like Dr. LiVolsi, have expertise in thyroid pathology was charged with studying the thyroid tumors that had occurred to reach a consensus diagnosis. These analyses, including samples of the tumors, have been made available to the international research community to further our understanding of thyroid-cancer development and radiation-induced tumors.

The isotopes of radioactive iodine that are suspected of causing the outbreak of thyroid
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Contact: Rick Cushman
rick.cushman@uphs.upenn.edu
215-349-5659
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
12-Apr-2006

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