Current situation and the role of department of clinical laboratory medicine on the Fukushima Health Management Survey Project for risk of thyroid cancer

: Since the accident at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant after the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011, large quantities of radionuclides have leaked from Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant into the surrounding environment. Fukushima Prefecture started the Fukushima Health Management Survey Project, including thyroid ultrasound examinations to screen for thyroid cancer, covering approximately 360,000 residents aged 0 to 18 years at the time of the nuclear accident. Doctors and medical technicians in the Department of Clinical Laboratory Medicine of Fukushima Medical University Hospital are participating in this program as administrators, examiners, and instructors. In the first preliminary survey from October, 2011 to March, 2012 for residents in highly contaminated areas, A2 judgment, defined as cysts of < or = 20.0 mm or nodules < or = 5.0 mm in diameter, and B judgment, defined as cysts or nodules larger than A2 were found in 35.8% and 0.5%, respectively. In second preliminary survey until March, 2013, A2 and B judgments were identified in 44.6% and 0.7% of residents in intermediately contaminated areas. A secondary examination for young residents who were judged as B or C identified 28 cases of malignancy or suspected malignancy. The radiation dose, age at diagnosis, diameters and tissue characteristics of the thyroid cancer suggest that the thyroid cancer found in Fukushima had already occurred before the earthquake. Since this project should be continued for several decades, we would like to ask for your support and cooperation over the long term.