United States: The latest evidence suggests that the medical test designed for cancer detection might, in fact, be contributing to cancer development.
Computerized tomography or CT scanners generate detailed imagery through X-ray examinations to support disease diagnosis of cancer alongside bone injuries, along with aiding surgical procedures and tracking treatment effectiveness.
More about the news
The CT scanners operate without proper regulation, and machines emit different amounts of radiation that remain uncontrolled.
Scientists who performed research in 2009 calculated that high-dose radiation from CT scans would lead to approximately 30,000 annual cancers that formed two percent of all new cancers, as Daily Mail reported.
Modern studies demonstrate that increasing CT scan numbers will probably result in growing occurrences of linked cancers.
CT scan procedures prove to be lifesaving instruments because they identify developing diseases or bleeding patterns before treatment becomes essential.
Experts claim that healthcare professionals issue CT scans excessively even though unnecessary procedures might stem from financial motivations due to the testing costs and physicians wanting to avoid legal consequences.
Researcher Dr Rebecca Smith-Bindman holds the position of a professor at the University of California-San Francisco medical school for the ongoing 2009 research project.
“It’s unfathomable. We keep doing more and more CTs, and the doses keep going up,” she said.
What more are the experts suggesting?
Dr Smith Bindman revealed that two CT scanners expose patients to radiation levels which differ by 10 to 15 times.
“There is very large variation, and the doses vary by an order of magnitude — tenfold, not 10 percent different — for patients seen for the same clinical problem,’ she added.
Studies conducted by the medical market research organization IMV indicate that about 93 million scans are done each year in the US, and these numbers continue to increase.
The quantitative measure to assess body radiation absorption goes by the name of millisieverts (mSv).
Human beings experience minimal daily exposure to radiation from environmental factors, along with air travel.
According to the research authors, the number of cancer cases caused by CT radiation exposure could be between 1.5 percent and two percent.
Furthermore, based on a 2007 study, which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine, where the risks to one person from CT scans are not large, but “the increasing exposure to radiation in the population may be a public health issue in the future” Daily Mail reported.