Antinuclear

Yearly, 400 new cases of cancer caused by CT scans

CT scans overuse causes cancers: report, The West , AAP,  March 15, 2010, Senior radiologists have called for doctors to stop the indiscriminate ordering of CT scans, which can cause cancer.Medical research has found that more than 400 new cases of cancer a year in Australia are attributable to diagnostic radiology.

Despite this, the number of computerised tomography scans, which generate far more radiation than X-rays, is growing about 12 per cent a year, Fairfax newspapers say.

The prevalence of CT scans has led the director of the Professional Services Review, Tony Webber, to take the unusual step of publishing an expert’s call for doctors to reverse the trend towards use of CTs as a first-choice diagnostic tool for such conditions as lower-back pain.

“I have been alarmed at the number of these scans ordered without clinical justification,” Dr Webber says in his Report to the Professions issued on Monday………..The Report to the Professions includes an appeal from a leading radiologist, Richard Mendelson, who said most authorities on radiation accept there’s no dose of ionising radiation deemed to be without risk.

CT scans overuse causes cancers: report – The West Australian

March 15, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, health | antinuclear, Australia, nuclear, radioactive