What is the cancer risk posed by CT scans in kids? Elizabeth Tracey reports

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CT scans in children, especially those that image bones where bone marrow is found, increase the risk for certain cancers, a new study finds. And the more scans the kids have the greater the risk. William Nelson, director of the Kimmel Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, explains what was done.

Nelson: They were able by the scan that was done to do an estimation of the radiation dose particularly to bones that contain bone marrow. What they found was almost 3000 blood type cancers were diagnosed, the majority of them were lymphomas. Lymphomas are often associated with radiation exposure so that's not particularly surprising and they believe that accounted for as many as 10-10.1% of all cancers in children were, they believe, a consequence of getting X-ray studies, CT scans.    :30

Nelson points out that what the study didn’t identify was why kids were getting CT and other imaging in the first place, although the study did factor in possible preexisting cancers. He recommends avoiding CT if possible in children. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.