CT SCANS MAY POSE CANCER RISKS

After an imaging test revealed a small nodule in Dr. Len Lichtenfeld's lung, his doctor ordered a series of CT scans. But Lichtenfeld turned them down.

As deputy chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society, Lichtenfeld knew the tiny nodule probably wasn't dangerous and that new research has documented an increased risk of cancer from CT scans' X-rays.

"The reality is, I thought the radiation dose from those follow-up scans represented more of a threat than the nodule," he said.

As physicians find new ways to use diagnostic imaging to discover and deal with disease, concern is growing about Americans' increased exposure to potentially cancer-causing radiation. Annual radiation doses from medical imaging have soared sevenfold since the early 1980s, according to a report last year from the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements.PRNewswire-USNewswire