Induction period

Induction period is the temporal aspect of the excess cancer risk that follows an exposure to ionizing radiation. Operationally, it can be thought of as the time from an exposure of brief duration to the diagnosis of any resultant cancer. Whereas the magnitude of excess risk can be described by a single number, such as the average yearly excess risk over some fixed time interval after exposure, the temporal distribution requires a histogram or a curve, that is, an array or continuum of numbers. The study of induction period involves a search for a simple way of describing the temporal distribution of risk, that is, a way of describing a continuum by using only one or two numbers. In other words, the goal is to describe induction period probabilistically, using a parametric model with a few parameters