Are we giving ourselves cancer?
Medical imaging like CT scans could be giving us cancer.
A report from the World Health Organization predicts cancer rates will grow by 70% over the next 20 years. Despite some progress in prevention and treatment, cancer rates remain stubbornly high and may soon surpass heart disease as the leading cause of death in the United States, Canada and other industrialized counties. And now some experts say we may be giving the cancer to ourselves.
The use of medical imaging with high-dose radiation — CT scans in particular — has soared in the last 20 years. The radiation doses of CT scans (a series of X-ray images from multiple angles) are 100 to 1,000 times higher than conventional X-rays. CTs, once rare, are now routine. One in 10 Americans undergo a CT scan every year, and many of them get more than one. This growth is a result of multiple factors, including a desire for early diagnoses, higher quality imaging technology, direct-to-consumer advertising and the financial interests of doctors and imaging centers. CT scanners cost millions of dollars; having made that investment, purchasers are strongly incentivized to use them.
Read the article by Rita Redberg and Rebecca Smith-Bindman in The New York Times.
Subscribe
If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to receive more just like it.
