Screening program reduced melanoma mortality at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 1984 to 1996.

Background: Worldwide incidence of cutaneous malignant melanoma has increased substantially, and no screening program has yet shown reduction in mortality. We evaluated results of an educational campaign designed to promote self-examination and targeted screening at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL).

Methods: Thickness and crude incidence of melanomas detected during 3 phases of increasing melanoma surveillance were studied.

Cancer incidence rates among Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) employees: 1974-1997.

Background: In the mid-1970's an excess of malignant melanoma of the skin was noted among employees at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). A 1984 cancer incidence study showed a non-significant excess of total cancers among female employees with significant excesses for melanoma, rectum and anus, and salivary gland cancers. For male employees, there was a non-significant deficit of total cancer with significant excesses in melanoma and non-brain nervous system cancers.

Three somatic genetic biomarkers and covariates in radiation-exposed Russian cleanup workers of the chernobyl nuclear reactor 6-13 years after exposure.

Three somatic mutation assays were evaluated in men exposed to low-dose, whole-body, ionizing radiation. Blood samples were obtained between 1992 and 1999 from 625 Russian Chernobyl cleanup workers and 182 Russian controls. The assays were chromosome translocations in lymphocytes detected by FISH, hypoxanthine phosphoribosyltransferase (HPRT) mutant frequency in lymphocytes by cloning, and flow cytometic assay for glycophorin A (GPA) variant frequency of both deletion (N/Ø) and recombination (N/N) events detected in erythrocytes.