Young people's perspectives of thyroid cancer screening and its harms after the nuclear accident in Fukushima Prefecture: a questionnaire survey indicating opt-out screening strategy of the thyroid examination as an ethical issue.

Background: Overdiagnosis of thyroid cancer has become a major global medical issue. Ultrasound-based thyroid cancer screening has promoted overdiagnosis, and recently international recommendations state that it should not be conducted, even after a nuclear accident. The Fukushima thyroid cancer screening program was initiated in 2011 as a health policy after the nuclear accident.

Trajectory and factors of radiation risk perception of students aged 10-12 years at the time of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station accident.

Various studies have investigated radiation risk perceptions after the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. However, student surveys are limited. This study aimed to investigate the perception of radiation risk among students aged 18-20 years who were in the 5th and 6th grades of elementary school at the time of the accident.

Lessons learned from conducting disease monitoring in low-dose exposure conditions as a counter-measure after a nuclear disaster.

The complex disaster of the Great East Japan Earthquake and the Fukushima nuclear accident caused concern about their various health impacts. Many types of intervention are desired as a countermeasure, depending on the phase of the disaster cycle. The importance of developing and applying codes of conduct has recently been emphasized for post-disaster investigations.

An ethical dimension to accident management and health surveillance.

Many radiation protection actions carry a multitude of direct and indirect consequences that can impact on the welfare of affected populations. Health surveillance raises ethical challenges linked to privacy and data protection, as well as questions about the net benefit of screening. The SHAMISEN project recognized these issues and developed specific recommendations to highlight ethical challenges.

Nested matched case control study for the Japan Fukushima Health Management Survey's first full-scale (second-round) thyroid examination.

Since Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011, thyroid ultrasound examinations have been conducted. The first full-scale examination detected 71 thyroid-cancer cases. This study examined whether radiation exposure was associated with thyroid-cancer incidence.

A multicenter, phase 2 study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of osilodrostat, a new 11β-hydroxylase inhibitor, in Japanese patients with endogenous Cushing's syndrome other than Cushing's disease.

This phase 2, single-arm, open-label, dose-titration, multicenter study evaluated osilodrostat (11β-hydroxylase inhibitor) in Japanese patients with endogenous Cushing's syndrome (CS) caused by adrenal tumor/hyperplasia or ectopic adrenocorticotropic hormone syndrome. The primary endpoint was percent change from baseline to week 12 in mean urinary free cortisol (mUFC) at the individual patient level. Of the nine patients enrolled in the study, seven completed the 12-week core treatment period and two discontinued at or prior to week 12 due to adverse events (AEs).

Time-dependent changes in FT4 and FT3 levels measured using mass spectrometry after an acute ingestion of excess levothyroxine in a case with hypothyroidism.

Background: Thyrotoxicosis is common disorder among endocrine dysfunctions. It is not rare that the free thyroid hormone level exceeds the measurement range of immunoassay. Such extreme high concentration of free thyroid hormone is generally considered to be impossible to measure correctly because of changes in the balance between free hormones and binding proteins by dilution of serum.

Determination of the Kinetic Parameters for 123I Uptake by the Thyroid, Thyroid Weights, and Thyroid Volumes in Present-day Healthy Japanese Volunteers.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the kinetic parameters that determine the uptake rate of radioiodide in the thyroid over 24 h after administration and to estimate thyroid volumes/masses of present-day Japanese. Methods: We determined the thyroid uptake rate of I in healthy male Japanese after oral administration (4.5-8.

External Radiation Dose, Obesity, and Risk of Childhood Thyroid Cancer After the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Accident: The Fukushima Health Management Survey.

Background: The 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake led to a nuclear accident at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. This study examines the associations of radiation dose and lifestyle factors with incidence of thyroid cancer in Fukushima.

Methods: We designed a prospective study with 300,473 participants aged 18 years or younger, who underwent thyroid examinations from October 2011.

Factors Influencing the Proportion of Non-examinees in the Fukushima Health Management Survey for Childhood and Adolescent Thyroid Cancer: Results From the Baseline Survey.

Background: After the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident, a preliminary ultrasound-based screening for thyroid cancer was conducted to establish a baseline for subsequent evaluations. In this survey, we assessed the relationship between the proportion of non-examinees and characteristics of the target populations.

Methods: After summarizing a regional difference of non-examinees among the population of 359,200 (primary evaluation) and 2,246 (confirmatory testing) individuals who were living in Fukushima Prefecture on March 11, 2011, we estimated odds ratios (ORs) for each characteristic, including age, sex, area of residence, and moving after the accident, based on the proportion of non-examinees for the primary examination and the confirmatory testing, using a multivariate logistic regression model.

Spatial analysis of the geographical distribution of thyroid cancer cases from the first-round thyroid ultrasound examination in Fukushima Prefecture.

Following the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FNPP) accident on 11 March 2011, there have been concerns regarding the health impacts of the ensuing radioactive environmental contamination, which was spatially heterogeneous. This study aimed to assess the geographical variability of thyroid cancer prevalence among children and adolescents in Fukushima Prefecture. We computed the sex- and age-standardised prevalence ratio using 115 diagnosed or suspected thyroid cancer cases among approximately 300,000 examinees at the first-round ultrasound examination during 2011-2015 from 59 municipalities in the prefecture, under the Fukushima Health Management Survey.

Incidence of Thyroid Cancer Among Children and Young Adults in Fukushima, Japan, Screened With 2 Rounds of Ultrasonography Within 5 Years of the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station Accident.

Importance: Ultrasonographic (US) screening for thyroid cancer was performed in the Fukushima Health Management Survey after the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station accident. Clinical characteristics of thyroid cancers screened by US among children and young adults during the first 5 years after the accident were analyzed.

Objectives: To evaluate the number of detected thyroid cancers by age group within 5 years of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station accident and to compare the basic clinical characteristics and demographic patterns in first- and second-round examinations.

Mental health of nurses after the Fukushima complex disaster: a narrative review.

Work-related mental health impairment is recognized as a real problem in the context of helping responders, including health professionals, due to adverse health outcomes after a severe disaster. The Great East-Japan Earthquake, which occurred on 11 March 2011, was an unprecedented complex disaster that caused a nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (NPP). In addition to disaster stress and daily work, medical and health-care professionals, particularly nurses, provided counseling services to residents concerned about radiation health risks or mental health issues.

Simulation of expected childhood and adolescent thyroid cancer cases in Japan using a cancer-progression model based on the National Cancer Registry: Application to the first-round thyroid examination of the Fukushima Health Management Survey.

During the 4 years following the nuclear power plant accident of 2011, 39 males and 77 females were diagnosed with or suspected of having cancer based on the first-round thyroid examination of the Fukushima Health Management Survey (FHMS) targeting residents aged <19 years in Fukushima. Prior comparisons between the observed data and Japan's National Cancer Registry (NCR) data suggested that this incidence might be excessive, but such comparisons are problematic because they need not only to adjust index unit (prevalence proportion vs incidence rate), but also examine characteristics (complete enumeration mass screening for the aged 0 to 18 years vs detections in clinical settings for all the residents) and sensitivity of the examinations. The purpose of this study is to build a common model applicable to any region in Japan under nonaccident conditions, and estimate the expected prevalence based on the numbers of subjects surveyed in the FHMS using a simulation of the sensitivity.

Findings of Thyroid Ultrasound Examination Within 3 Years After the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant Accident: The Fukushima Health Management Survey.

Context: Childhood thyroid cancer is of great concern after the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident. Baseline analytical data on thyroid ultrasound examination (TUE) in children are important for future studies.

Objective: We analyzed the age and sex distribution of findings from the TUEs of children and adolescents in the Fukushima Health Management Survey (FHMS).

Comparative Analysis of the Growth Pattern of Thyroid Cancer in Young Patients Screened by Ultrasonography in Japan After a Nuclear Accident: The Fukushima Health Management Survey.

Importance: Thyroid cancer generally grows at a very slow rate in adults, and overdiagnosis is a global issue. However, the detection of early-stage thyroid cancer by screening is not well described in young patients. To prevent overdiagnosis, it is essential to understand the natural course of thyroid cancer growth detection by ultrasonography screening in young patients.

Prevalence and Characterization of Thyroid Hemiagenesis in Japan: The Fukushima Health Management Survey.

Background: Thyroid hemiagenesis is a rare congenital variant characterized by the lack of development of one thyroid lobe with no clinical manifestations.

Methods: This study was performed to determine the prevalence and characteristics of thyroid hemiagenesis in a normal Japanese population. This cross-sectional study was performed from October 9, 2011, to April 30, 2015.

Mental Health and Related Factors of Hospital Nurses.

The mental health of hospital nurses is a key health issue in public health promotion during the recovery phase following the Fukushima disaster. In this study, conducted 4 years after the disaster, we analyzed the overall mental health, knowledge, risk perception of radiation, and work and daily life burdens of nurses working at medical institutions in the Fukushima Prefecture (collection rate = 89.6%; response number = 730).

Psychosocial Issues Related to Thyroid Examination After a Radiation Disaster.

A thyroid ultrasound examination program has been conducted in the aftermath of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident to address concerns about the increased risk of thyroid cancer similar to those experienced by local residents after the 1986 Chernobyl accident. This is the second-largest thyroid cancer screening in younger age ever, following only that conducted after Chernobyl. As the natural history of thyroid cancer in younger populations is not well characterized, large-scale screening using thyroid ultrasound could result in overdiagnosis, even with careful planning, as has been experienced in South Korea.