CT scans diagnose afflictions from tumors to kidney stones to life-threatening diseases and injuries, such as aneurysms and blood clots leading to stroke.
But the radiation emitted by this essential diagnostic tool may cause more harm than previously known and could eventually be responsible for roughly 5% of all cancers diagnosed in the U.S. in a single year, a new study finds.
"Medical imaging has potential benefits," said radiologist Dr. Rebecca Smith-Bindman, an epidemiology professor at the University of California, San Francisco, and lead author of the study published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine. "It has potential harms as well, and it's really important to balance them."
Scientists long ago established that ionizing radiation emitted by computed tomography, or CT, scans increases cancer risk. But, since 2007, use of the imaging technique has surged 35%, the study says, due in part to growth in what Smith-Bindman and her colleagues call "low-value, potentially unnecessary imaging."
The Food and Drug Administration Monday unveiled the details of a new policy designed to make...
As marijuana use among teens has grown in the past decade, researchers have been trying to...
NYU Langone Health, one of New York City’s major hospital networks, announced this week that it...
