University of Cincinnati researchers who have spent several years studying the victims of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster in the former Soviet Union have published a ground-breaking study that explains why radiation triggers thyroid cancer more than other kinds of cancer.

        The study appears in the latest edition of the journal Science. Itreports that the physical structure of human DNA — not just the sequence of genes but how they are coiled inside a cell — strongly influences the chances of radiation exposure causing cancer.

        This new understanding is one of the more significant findings about radiation and health effects that scientists have learned by studying the Chernobyl disaster, said Dr. Yuri Nikiforov, an assistant professor at UC's Department of Pathology and co-author of the DNA study.

        In 1986, a massive radiation leak at Chernobyl, now in the nation of Ukraine, was blamed for rapidly killing 30 people, sending 237 to the hospital, and exposing hundreds of thousands more to varying but significant doses of radiation. By 1996, about 800 children age 15 and younger were diagnosed with thyroid cancer, including more than 400 cases from the nearby nation of Belarus.

        Dr. Nikiforov, a scientist from Belarus who has worked at UC since 1995, has been involved in follow-up studies for several years. The new study was based on comparing normal DNA to 80 cases of Chernobyl thyroid can cer.

        The research indicates that radiation beams moving in straight lines pierce coiled DNA in two places at once. However, this double-break apparently needs to occur in certain spots to trigger tumor growth. About 80 percent of the Chernobyl victims studied had fused DNA in the same small areas.

        Meanwhile, the DNA coil in other organs is shaped differently than in the thyroid glands. That may explain why those cells are less likely to suffer cancer-causing radiation damage, Dr. Nikiforov said.

        The implication: If the DNA in thyroid cells can be temporarily reshaped, even slightly, then radiation exposure would be less likely to trigger cancer.

        This new finding eventually could lead to protective treatments for cancer patients and others who need high-dose radiation treatment, as well as nuclear workers and maybe military troops, Dr. Nikiforov said.

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