Artikel
The autopsy archive of former German uranium miners - a valuable resource for research on ionizing radiation in interaction with quartz dust and lung cancer
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Veröffentlicht: | 8. September 2005 |
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In East Germany, uranium mining was undertaken on a large scale from 1946 to 1989. Poor working conditions led to a high level of occupational lung diseases. A large tissue repository was opened for research. It contains autopsy protocols of about 30,000 persons (including 17,000 miners), 400,000 slides, 66,000 tissue blocks, and 200 whole lungs. A database was developed at German Cancer Research Center to document autopsy and exposure information. For 13,000 miners with archived specimens, mean radon exposure was assessed with 725 WLM, including 800 workers with exposure to levels above 1800 WLM. A leading diagnosis was lung cancer in about 5300 persons (4500 underground miners). Research is now aimed to investigate silicosis, exposure to radiation and quartz dust on lung cancer development by histological subtype. First results indicate a higher relative occurrence of small cell (OR 1.87; 95% CI 1.34 – 2.61) and squamous cell (OR 1.78; 95% CI 1.22 – 2.60) lung cancer as compared with adenocarcinoma under high cumulative radon exposure (>=900 WLM). Among silicotics, non-small cell lung cancer carcinoma appeared relatively more common. A study on the feasibility of the tissue for molecular-biological investigations is under way.