Study Suggests Background Radiation Responsible for Some Leukemia

Matthew Skoufalos | | Radiology Business | Business Intelligence
Pediatric exposure to radiation has been a hot topic in the imaging world since a Lancet study last week cautioned against the long-term effects of CT exposure on childhood cancer patients. Now additional research has been released that demonstrates the relationship, however small, of natural exposure to background gamma radiation in cases of leukemia. For every millisievert of natural gamma-ray dose to the bone marrow, researchers calculated a relative leukemia risk increase likely within a range of 3% to 22% per millisievert. "In terms of preventing childhood cancers caused by natural gamma-rays, there’s not a lot you can do," said lead researcher Gerald Kendall in a press release accompanying the study. "We have estimated that about 15% of the 500 or so cases of childhood leukaemia which occur annually in the UK are due to natural background radiation…approaching 40 childhood leukaemias a year,” he said. Previous exposure guidance had been modeled on risks estimated from survivors of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which only offered extreme examples. The novelty of the approach cited in the journal Leukemia was grounded in “a very large record-based case-control study testing associations between childhood cancer and natural background radiation,” according to a press release.

Matthew Skoufalos

Related Content

Orano Med breaks ground on $265M thorium production site
Image-interpretation market scoreboard: Radiologists 72%, others 28%
Lantheus lands rights to budding radiopharmaceuticals for initial outlay of $35M
17 short-term strategies to address the national radiologist shortage
‘SR’ onboards another independent practice, its 1st in the Natural State
Analysis: Allied radiology professionals generate millions of dollars per year in indirect revenues alone

Around the web

Health Imaging
Nearly $800,000 settlement offered to family of man who died during MRI exam

The patient, who was being cared for in the ICU, was not accompanied or monitored by nursing staff during his exam, despite being sedated.

Cardiovascular Business
Global shortage of nuclear imaging isotopes may be over

The nuclear imaging isotope shortage of molybdenum-99 may be over now that the sidelined reactor is restarting. ASNC's president says PET and new SPECT technologies helped cardiac imaging labs better weather the storm.

Cardiovascular Business
‘A huge win’: CMS significantly increases Medicare payments for cardiac CT

CMS has more than doubled the CCTA payment rate from $175 to $357.13. The move, expected to have a significant impact on the utilization of cardiac CT, received immediate praise from imaging specialists.