A recent study has revealed that medical imaging (including X-rays and all tests involving radiation exposure) increases the risk of blood cancer in children.
Researchers disclosed that an estimated 1 in 10 children with blood cancer developed the disease due to imaging scans.
According to a researcher from the University of California, San Francisco, although medical imaging is often essential to save lives, it is crucial to minimize radiation exposure in children for the sake of their health.
For this study, experts analyzed nearly 3.7 million children born between 1996 and 2016 across six healthcare systems in the United States and Canada.
During the research, 3,000 cases of blood cancer were diagnosed, highlighting that children are at the greatest risk from the increasing radiation levels of CT scans.
The study results showed that children who underwent one or two CT scans faced up to an 80% higher risk of blood cancer, whereas the risk from X-rays was relatively lower.
