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Trying to decide treatment options and quality of life after
Prostate Cancer | Last Active: Aug 13 8:44am | Replies (42)Comment receiving replies
I do not know what to make out of those studies, to be honest .
According to this study https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/radiation-ct-scans-cancer-risks
simple and single CT scan alone increases a risk of developing cancer. About 5% of new cancer cases can be attributed to use of a CT scan.
"Using the UCSF registry data on individual CT exams and RadRAT, the team estimated that CT use in 2023 could result in almost 103,000 future cancers. If current practices continue, CT scan use might eventually account for about 5% of all new cancer diagnoses in the U.S. per year."
Replies to "I do not know what to make out of those studies, to be honest . According..."
They cite 93,000,000 scans and come up with a ‘possible’ 103,000 cases. That’s .001 mathematically. I will take those odds if a scan can find a cancer or malady that might kill me if I was unaware of it.
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A CT scan has a 1 in 1,000 chance of causing cancer (0.1%). But when you apply that to the whole U.S. population, you get a potentially large number of cases, even though most CT scans are harmless.
But it's also a good reminder not to get scanned more than is medically necessary. Prostate cancer patients probably don't need a PSMA-PET or regular CT contrast scan every year, for example, unless there's other evidence that their cancer is changing.