Can we take the next step forward in beating cancer?
More than 80 million CT scans are done in the U.S. each year to help diagnose many medical conditions. In 2007, the National Cancer Institute predicted that 29,000 future cancer cases could be linked to the CT scans performed in the U.S. in that year alone, and doctors have ordered more CT scans every year since then. CT scans of the belly and pelvis are associated with increased risk for blood cancers over the next two years (JAMA Surg, 2021 Apr 1;156(4):343-351). A study of 825,820 people who had an appendectomy for acute appendicitis found that 306,727 had had a CT scan before their appendectomy while 519,093 did not have a CT scan. In the next two years, those who had had a CT scan were 26 percent more likely to develop a blood cancer, most commonly leukemia. Other studies come to the same conclusion: CT scans were associated with elevated risk of thyroid cancer and leukemia (NCI Cancer Spectrum, Feb 2020;4(1):pkz072); and a study of 12,068,821 people found significantly increased risk for cancer in those who had CT scans (JAMA Netw Open, 2019;2(9):e1910584).