The number of CT exams performed in the US has jumped over 30 percent since 2007, with about 93 million scans in 2023 alone. That’s nearly one for every three Americans. All the cool kids are getting CT scans.
And all the kids with cancer, too, apparently, as a study published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine posits that it’s at least theoretically possible that around 103,000 of those CT scans in 2023 could contribute to the development of at least 103,000 future cases of cancer.
Now, don’t go rejecting any CT scan recommended by your doctor. They still save lives. They can catch a stroke lying in wait or some mysterious malady in your lungs you had no idea about. If there is internal chaos within you, a CT scan can find it. And if you do the scan early enough, it can find a problem long before it becomes a problem.
Even when it comes to cancer, they’re quite beneficial. In one trial, CT scans were found to cut lung cancer deaths by 20 percent in high-risk folks.
The problem comes from the thing that makes CT scans work in the first place: radiation. Ionizing radiation, to be specific, the kind that could possibly increase your cancer risk.
I cannot stress enough that this number of 103,000 future cases of cancer from all of the CT scans performed in 2023 is a theoretical number and a number that represents the highest possible amount of cases that could, again theoretically, arise in the future as a result of those scans.
That’s around 5 percent of all new diagnoses—a stat that puts the CT scanner in the same risk bracket as alcohol, minus the delightful drunken escapades. This is based on models tied to events like Hiroshima and nuclear power meltdowns, so not exactly your average ER visit.
The cancer risk isn’t the same for everyone. Kids, teens, and babies seem more vulnerable, and women may be more susceptible than men. That said, the experts agree: when a CT scan is actually needed, the benefits far outweigh the risks.
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