The relation between leukemia and diagnostic medical irradiation was examined in 1,414 adult leukemia cases from Upstate New York and the Minneapolis and Baltimore metropolitan areas and 1,370 adult controls comprising a probability sample of the same areas from which the cases were drawn. Details of exposure by site and numbers of films were compiled from records of hospitals and physicians. The association of irradiation with leukemia was examined by the histologic type, sex, and age of the subject. Irradiation had an enhanced risk for males for both acute and chronic myeloid leukemia but not for females. The effect was more pronounced for irradiation to the trunk than to all other sites. Neither irradiated males nor females had an elevated risk for any other histologic type of leukemia. However, only a small proportion of the irradiated population develops leukemia, and irradiation accounts for only a small proportion of leukemia cases.
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Gibson et al. (1972) studied this question.