Tuesday, December 15, 2009

CT scans may raise cancer risk

The hazards of radiation from CT scans was highlighted by some articles published in this week's Archives of Internal Medicine.


One study found that the number of CT scans has increased dramatically in recent years in the US putting patients at the risk of developing radiation-induced cancer. They estimated that the CT scans performed in 2007 will eventually cause 29,000 cancers and 15,000 death.


Another study found that radiation doses from common diagnostic CT scans are much higher than we previously thought and the amount of radiation varies wildly and much greater than is considered acceptable. Based on their findings, they estimated that at the age of 40, 1 in 270 women who get CT scan of the heart will develop cancer and 1 in 600 men. 1 in 8,100 women who get scans of the head and 1 in 11,080 men.


In an accompanying editorial, the author asked are such risks justified and concluded that "to avoid unnecessarily increasing cancer incidence in future years, every clinician must carefully assess the expected benefits of each CT scan and fully inform his or her patients of the known risks of radiation". Greater standardization across institutions is also needed.


Source: ( both f/t via Athens )
"Radiation Dose Associated With Common Computed Tomography Examinations and the Associated Lifetime Attributable Risk of Cancer" Arch Intern Med. 2009;169(22):2078-2086


"Cancer Risks and Radiation Exposure From Computed Tomographic Scans: How Can We Be Sure That the Benefits Outweigh the Risks?" Arch Intern Med 2009;169:2049-2050.

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