A study published in a recent issue of the Journal of American College of Radiology asserts that CT -induced cancers are more likely to occur amongst rarely scanned young adults, as opposed to frequently scanned patients–the group that many assumed was at the highest risk for radiation induced cancer diagnoses.

It is still true that a definite relationship between cancer induction and less than 100 mSv of radiation has never been proven. This is assumed, for safety’s sake – based on proven relationships with much higher doses of radiation. Remember, a typical CT of the abdomen and pelvis in the modern world is about 6-10 mSv.

The other variable that has never been proven is the assumption that the risk from multiple scans which are widely spaced in time is additive. In fact, we know that the body has tremendous capacity to heal and repair any kind of damage – so any damage from a single event of low dose radiation may be fully repaired before a second event occurs. Hence the effect may not be at all additive.

So… results like those found in this article are not surprising.

Nothing, however, should lessen our vigilance about striving for as low a radiation dose as possible for all medical diagnostic imaging applications. In a world of unknowns (and possibly unknowable’s), that’s just common sense.