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January 24, 2008
CT scan cancer
The NEJM published a study last month (or Nov. 29, 2007) which estimated that CT scans are responsible for 1.5% - 2% of all cancers. There are 62 million scans done in America each year. This was merely a calculation based on cancer effects on the 25,000 Japanese who survived the atomic explosions. They do reasonably estimate that the lifetime attributable cancer risk of necessary CTs is very small and must be weighed against the benefit.
But it should give those pause who advocate CT for cancer and CAD screening.
Clinical Iatrogenesis | By Robert Maddox | 01:18 PM