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Connection between CT scans and cancer

Radiation from CT scans linked to cancers, deaths

By Liz Szabo, USA TODAY 15 Dec 09

CT scans deliver far more radiation than previously believed and may contribute to 29,000 new cancers each year, along with 14,500 deaths, suggest two studies in today’s Archives of Internal Medicine. One study, led by the National Cancer Institute’s Amy Berrington de Gonzalez, used existing exposure data to estimate how many cancers might be caused by CT scans.

Another study in the journal suggests the problem may even be worse. In that study, researchers found that people may be exposed to up to four times as much radiation as estimated by earlier studies. While previous studies relied on dummies equipped with sensors, authors of the new paper studied 1,119 patients at four San Francisco-area hospitals, says author Rebecca-Smith Bindman of the University of California-San Francisco. Based on those higher measurements, a patient could get as much radiation from one CT scan as 74 mammograms or 442 chest X-rays, she says.

Radiation from CT scans linked to cancers, deaths – USATODAY.com

December 15, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | health, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, radiation, radioactive