It has been estimated that about 0.4% of all cancers in the United States may be attributable to the radiation from CT studies. - GreenMedInfo Summary
Computed tomography--an increasing source of radiation exposure.
N Engl J Med. 2007 Nov 29;357(22):2277-84. PMID: 18046031
Center for Radiological Research, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY 10032, USA. [email protected]
Excerpts: "The widespread use of CT represents probably the single most important advance in diagnostic radiology. However, as compared with plain-film radiography, CT involves much higher doses of radiation, resulting in a marked increase in radiation exposure in the population.
The increase in CT use and in the CT-derived radiation dose in the population is occurring just as our understanding of the carcinogenic potential of low doses of x-ray radiation has improved substantially, particularly for children. This improved confidence in our understanding of the lifetime cancer risks from low doses of ionizing radiation has come about largely because of the length of follow-up of the atomic-bomb survivors — now more than 50 years — and because of the consistency of the risk estimates with those from other large-scale epidemiologic studies. These considerations suggest that the estimated risks associated with CT are not hypothetical — that is, they are not based on models or major extrapolations in dose. Rather, they are based directly on measured excess radiation-related cancer rates among adults and children who in the past were exposed to the same range of organ doses as those delivered during CT studies....It has been estimated that about 0.4% of all cancers in the United States may be attributable to the radiation from CT studies."
