Thyroid Cancer Due to X-ray Treatment of Acne

To the Editor:—  The "scare propaganda" regarding x-ray therapy has interfered with the proper therapeutic application of that modality in cutaneous derangements. One of the avered "dangers" is the possibility that an epithelioma of the skin may develop despite the fact that the x-ray therapy which the patient received was insufficient to cause a radiodermatitis. However, these statements are based on case reports and not on statistical evidence. Statistics previously reported indicate that cancer develops only after excessive administration of ionizing radiation.¹ More recently, publications have appeared claiming that x-ray therapy for acne has caused an increase in thyroid cancer in the young.² These articles are uncritical. The number of cases reported are small. The dosage to the skin, and especially the thyroid, is seldom, if ever, mentioned. Some of the patients included in these series did not even receive x-ray therapy. It has been pointed out that