Saturday, Aug. 11, 2012

NAGASAKI Nagasaki University has been preserving DNA from cells extracted from cancer-stricken A-bomb survivors since 2008 in an effort to identify tumors caused by radiation exposure.

"It may become possible to find distinctive features in DNA mutated by radiation through a detailed investigation of cancer cells from hibakusha," said Masahiro Nakashima, professor of pathology at the university's Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.

With patients' consent, both cancerous and healthy cells are extracted from the affected region. DNA and RNA are then taken from the cells, frozen at minus 80 degrees and stored in a DNA bank at the university. The work is being conducted at Nagasaki University Hospital and the Japanese Red Cross Nagasaki Genbaku Hospital.

So far, the university has collected 365 samples not enough to reveal any distinctive features of cancers related to radiation. The situation is further complicated by the city's aging atomic bomb survivors, whose average age now stands at 77 years.

Nakashima said it is necessary to "devote all energy" to the research, despite a lack of manpower.

According to a survey conducted by the Radiation Effects Research Foundation on 94,000 hibakusha in Nagasaki and Hiroshima, a high possibility exists that radiation exposure was connected to cancer in 61 percent of patients exposed to 2 or more sieverts of radiation from the A-bombings.

It has not yet proved possible, however, to identify the causes of individual cases of cancer.

On the risk of developing cancer from small amounts of radiation emitted during the Fukushima nuclear crisis, Nakashima said "the investigation may open a door to research the effects of low-level exposure."

JIJI

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DNA of cancer-stricken hibakusha preserved