A new study has shown that people who have thyroid cancer and leukaemia are more likely to have received a CT scan.
A new study has found that exposure to CT scan radiation is associated with higher risks of developing thyroid cancer and leukaemia.
Researchers here conducted study from a National Health Insurance dataset in Taiwan between 2000 and 2013. The study followed 22,853 thyroid cancer, 13,040 leukaemia, and 20,157 non-Hodgkin lymphoma cases.
The paper, entitled Exposure to Tomographic Scans and Cancer Risks, was published in JNCI Cancer Spectrum.
The researchers concluded that patients receiving CT scans had, in general, marked increases in the risk of developing thyroid cancer and leukaemia, especially in female patients and patients younger than 45.
CT scan radiation and cancer
Researchers consulted data from the National Health Insurance program to study demographic and medical information on disease diagnoses, procedures, and drug prescriptions, and the enrolment profiles of all patients.
Patients were excluded if they were under 25 years at the time of the cancer diagnosis, had less than three years of follow-up before cancer diagnosis, or had a history of a cancer before the year 2000.
Results showed that patients who developed thyroid cancer and leukaemia had significantly higher likelihood of having received CT scans.
In studies that combined patients across age groups, exposure to medical CT scans was not associated with increased risk for non-Hodgkin lymphoma. However, in patients between 36 and 45 years of age, there was a three-fold increased risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma associated with CT scans. In older patients the association between exposure to CT scans and non-Hodgkin lymphoma was not evident.
Yu-Hsuan Joni Shao, of Taipei Medical University and one of the paper’s authors, said: “Our study found that CT scans are associated with an increased risk of thyroid cancer and leukaemia in adults in all ages and with non-Hodgkin lymphoma in young adults.
“The risk is stronger in patients who have higher cumulative doses from multiple scans. The increased numbers of people undergoing CT scans have become a public health issue.”
