Popular CT Scans Could Account for 5% of All Cancer Cases a Year

https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2025/04/429791/popular-ct-scans-could-account-5-all-cancer-cases-year

by hsuduebc2 • 1 year ago

26 9 1 year ago

Discussed a few days ago at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43692390

Thank you for highlighting the risks of overusing CT scans - especially for children. The comparison to known carcinogens like alcohol and excess weight really puts it in perspective.

lambertsimnel• 1 year ago

If popular CT scans do account for 5% of all cancer cases a year, don't they do that regardless of the time interval?

ein0p3• 1 year ago

I wish we could get such adverse effects stats for all other medical treatments from common medicines, to psych drugs, to other types of diagnostics (e.g. it is known that MRI causes cancer, too), all the way to vaccinations (especially the newer ones), ordered by the sizes of treated populations, descending. Guess which number is larger in the US, all homicides or deaths due to medical errors? The latter is 10x of the former, it's the third most prevalent cause of death, after heart disease and cancer. And these stats could blow the stats out even worse. It is not a coincidence that we at the same time over-medicate and don't live very long.

hsuduebc22• 1 year ago

Well we know for certain that ionizing radiation causes cancer, whereas the link between pharmaceuticals and cancer is often based on unproven or speculative theories.

ein0p3• 1 year ago

Well, let's see how "speculative" those theories are, shall we? I'm having a hard time believing that no one gets turbo cancer from e.g. 6.6 _billion_ prescriptions (month-equivalent), and 262 billion doses of prescription medication issued in the US per year. Shit's _way_ out of hand.

Popular CT Scans Could Account for 5% of All Cancer Cases a Year

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