CT Scans May Increase Risk of Cancer in Children

An Australian study suggests that children undergoing computed tomography (CT) scans are prone to develop cancer in later stage of life.

The researchers from the University of Melbourne, Australia, studied  records of 11 million youngsters, born between 1985 and 2005 and under 20 years of age. They collected the data from the country's Medicare and other national records of cancer patients.

The study showed that 680,000 of patients had a CT scan at least one year before the diagnosis of cancer and 122,500 of youngsters underwent more than one scan. The researchers said that an increase in the number of CT scans raised the chances of developing cancer.

The research found that cancer was 24 percent higher in patients who had received one CT scan and there was an increase of 16 percent for every additional scan. It also found that brain cancer risks were seen in children who underwent the scan before the age of five. The study stated that girls are at a higher risk of developing cancer than boys - 23 percent girls compared to 14 percent boys.

Lead researcher John D Matthews, MD, PhD, of the School of Population and Global Health at the University of Melbourne in Carlton, urged the doctors to order CT scans only when absolutely needed. "CT scans were very useful in providing detailed 3-D pictures to diagnose or exclude disease in internal organs and in most cases, the benefits of having a scan clearly outweigh the risk of a later cancer. Nevertheless, our new findings will remind doctors to order CT scans only when there is a definite medical reason, and to insist that CT scans use the lowest possible X-ray dose," he said.

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the U.S. According to the figures released by the American Cancer Society, around 1,660,290 new cases of cancer are estimated to be diagnosed in 2013. Nearly 580,350 deaths in the country will be because of the disease. This means that about 1,600 people will die every day due to the cancer.