[Incidence of thyroid cancer in children and adolescents in Białorus after the Chernobyl catastrophe in 1986].

Fifteen years after Chernobyl nuclear plant catastrophe thyroid cancer was diagnosed in 882 persons among the group of 2,618,482 persons aged 6-18 years. The radioactive contamination, mainly with isotopes of radioactive iodine, seems to be a major cause of such a high incidence of thyroid cancer in children and adolescents. However, it is necessary to consider other factors which also might influence the process of transformation of the thyroid cells to the thyroid cancer. The iodine deficiency in environment was recognized as an important factor. Therefore, the countrywide programme of the investigations of iodine deficiency and goiter prevalence was established in the Republic of Belarus with the assistance of WHO Office for Europe. Within this program the examination of 11,562 children and adolescents aged 6-18 years from 30 schools in urban and rural areas was performed. The results obtained are typical for significant iodine deficiency and moderate goiter endemy. The analysis of these two factors and their influence on the incidence and distribution of thyroid cancer in different regions of Belarus is a subject of this paper. It is worth adding that 15 years after the catastrophe a visible rise in the number of thyroid cancers is noted in the group of adolescents and adults.