What illness caused Marie Curie's death?

Marie Curie died from aplastic anemia in 1934.

Aplastic anemia is a serious disorder in which the bone marrow fails to produce enough blood cells. Curie died on July 4, 1934, at the Sancellemoz sanatorium in France, aged 66. Her illness was widely understood to be connected to her long-term exposure to ionizing radiation.

Radiation poisoning is a broad description of harmful radiation exposure, not the specific medical diagnosis recorded for her death. Tuberculosis and leukemia are also associated with members of the Curie family and the dangers of early radiation research, which can cause confusion. Curie's daughter Irène Joliot-Curie later died of acute leukemia.

During Curie's lifetime, the health risks of radiation were poorly understood. She handled radioactive materials without modern shielding and also worked with unshielded X-ray equipment during World War I, when she helped bring radiography to field hospitals.