Abstract

Several publications in the field of pathology, overestimating medical consequences of the Chernobyl nuclear accident, are reviewed here. Among the causes of high registered incidence of pediatric thyroid cancer after the accident was the screening effect with detection of advanced cases. This explains also for the relatively high prevalence of dedifferentiated histological patterns and pronounced invasiveness described as the features of Chernobyl-related thyroid cancer. Mechanisms of false-positive diagnostics of thyroid and urinary bladder lesions are analyzed here. Morphological features of renal cell carcinoma from Chernobyl and adjacent areas are discussed in relation to the averagely late detection of malignancies. In conclusion, results of some molecular-genetic and other studies based on Chernobyl material should be re-evaluated, considering that many tumors detected during the first decade after the accident by the screening or brought from non-contaminated areas were advanced tumors, some of them misinterpreted as aggressive radiogenic cancers developing after a short latency.

Keywords: Chernobyl; Ionizing radiation; Thyroid cancer; Renal cell carcinoma; Urothelial malignancy