Purpose of review: We discuss new evidence supporting the existence of a susceptibility to develop cancer following radiation exposure that is variable in the general population and could be measurable from gene expression.
Recent findings: Microarray analysis of spontaneous and post-Chernobyl thyroid cancers has uncovered gene expression radiation signatures, one of which could be related to the putative cause of these tumors and to a DNA repair pathway. A gene expression signature distinguishes the lymphocytes drawn from parents of children with retinoblastoma and the lymphocytes of parents of healthy children. The first are more radiosensitive. A familial clustering pattern is observed in radiation-induced meningiomas.
Summary: The existence of a susceptibility to develop radiation-induced cancer would explain why only a minority of the population most heavily exposed to radiation following the Chernobyl disaster developed a cancer. The possibility of measuring this susceptibility from gene expression has a number of implications for research, medicine and radioprotection.