Radiation-Related Cancer 25 Years After Chernobyl

Dear Colleagues,

The 26^th of April, 2011, marks the 25^th anniversary of the Chernobyl accident in northern Ukraine, the largest nuclear plant accident in history. As a consequence, approximately five million people were exposed to the radioactive fallout in the Russian Federation, Ukraine and Belarus. This nuclear disaster along with the atomic bomb explosions in Japan 65 years ago, called to mind the carcinogenic potential of ionizing radiation and its long-term health effects that arise in exposed populations. One of the most surprising health effects of the Chernobyl accident was the appearance and magnitude of cases of thyroid cancer in children that lived in the heavily contaminated areas. In the decades following the accident many researchers have looked at the biological effects occuring in cells that were exposed to radiation in order to understand the molecular mechanisms associated with radiation-related cancer. Although evidence of radiation-induced DNA damage, such as the induction of chromosome aberrations exists, there are only few indications of radiation-specific molecular markers in these tumors. In order to gain a better understanding of the specific actions of ionizing radiation in tumor development, it also might be helpful to identify radiation-specific gene alterations in tumors developed after medical irradiation. To mark the 25^th anniversary of the Chernobyl accident, a special issue of the journal Genes will be issued in order to shed light on knowledge about molecular mechanisms in radiation-related cancer. Authors are encouraged to submit original research articles and reviews reporting findings from studies on cancers of radiation-exposed cohorts. Also welcome are papers on animal or cell culture studies modeling the radiocarcinogenic process. This special issue is intented to provide an overview on current knowledge in the research of radiaton-related cancer.

Prof. Dr. Horst Zitzelsberger
Guest Editor