Common CT Scans Are Major Cancer Risk, Study Claims

Your next computed tomography, or CT, scan might be riskier than commonly assumed. A study out today calculates that CT scans are contributing to a substantially greater share of cancer cases than past research has suggested. Scientists at the University of California, San Francisco, led the research, published in JAMA Internal Medicine. They estimated that out of the millions of people who received CT scans in 2023, over 100,000 would eventually develop cancer in their lifetime. The scientists argue that CT scans should be seen as a cancer risk factor on par with excessive alcohol drinking, but at least some outside experts aren’t convinced. CT scans are commonly used to screen for and diagnose potential health problems or to help guide doctors during certain medical procedures. But they require exposing people to doses of ionizing radiation, a known carcinogen. Much of the research on how ionizing radiation increases cancer risk comes from studying the Japanese survivors of the ato ... Read full article.