What to Know About Scans and Risk
- CT and PET/CT scans expose patients to only a small amount of radiation at a time.
- Although most patients will not be affected, most doctors try to minimize scans as a practice.
- Imaging is essential for clinician teams to determine next steps.
While people with cancer overwhelmingly understand the importance of scans, there may be some concern in the mix of emotions as well: Can imaging itself have dangerous effects?
“A lot of our patients ask us what are the harmful effects of PET/CTs or imaging in general,” Dr. Jakub Svoboda, a medical oncologist with Penn Medicine, tells SurvivorNet. “And there’s some data that tried to quantify the exposure of radiation and compare it to exposure of radiation in other settings like Chernobyl.” Here are the findings.
Scans Use a Small Amount of Radiation
Patients should be reassured to know that PET and CT scans expose them to only a very small amount of radiation. “The amounts of radiation that patients get with each exposure to CT scan or a PET/CT is so small that your body is able to tolerate it,” Dr. Svoboda tells SurvivorNet.
That said, he prefers to minimize scans, performing them only when necessary. “That’s how I think most of us practice,” he says. “But the small amount of radiation your body is [exposed] to, your DNA is supposed to handle better than if you expose a patient with a very high dose of radiation at one time.”
Small Radiation Doses Are Easier for DNA to Handle
Dr. Svoboda cites studies that explore the effects of repeated small doses of exposure versus one big one. “If you get 20 CT scans through your 10 years of indolent lymphoma and you add the amount of radiation you get with each CT scan and then multiply it and get a value, that it’s very different if you get exposed during an explosion with the same value at just one time,” he says.”
That’s “because your DNA has the ability to repair and to fix things [but] if they get exposed to a really high amount of this radiation and free radicals, then the DNA will get damaged.”
He explains that continued small exposures make for “a different situation” in the body. “I think that you need to be careful not to do too many scans, but in many situations, the imaging is really essential for us, the clinicians, to know what to do, what should be the next step.”
Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.
Dr. Jakub Svoboda is a medical oncologist at Penn Medicine, and associate professor of medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Read More
What to Know About Scans and Risk
- CT and PET/CT scans expose patients to only a small amount of radiation at a time.
- Although most patients will not be affected, most doctors try to minimize scans as a practice.
- Imaging is essential for clinician teams to determine next steps.
While people with cancer overwhelmingly understand the importance of scans, there may be some concern in the mix of emotions as well: Can imaging itself have dangerous effects?
“A lot of our patients ask us what are the harmful effects of PET/CTs or imaging in general,” Dr. Jakub Svoboda, a medical oncologist with Penn Medicine, tells SurvivorNet. “And there’s some data that tried to quantify the exposure of radiation and compare it to exposure of radiation in other settings like Chernobyl.” Here are the findings.
Scans Use a Small Amount of Radiation
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Patients should be reassured to know that PET and CT scans expose them to only a very small amount of radiation. “The amounts of radiation that patients get with each exposure to CT scan or a PET/CT is so small that your body is able to tolerate it,” Dr. Svoboda tells
SurvivorNet.
That said, he prefers to minimize scans, performing them only when necessary. “That’s how I think most of us practice,” he says. “But the small amount of radiation your body is [exposed] to, your DNA is supposed to handle better than if you expose a patient with a very high dose of radiation at one time.”
Small Radiation Doses Are Easier for DNA to Handle
Dr. Svoboda cites studies that explore the effects of repeated small doses of exposure versus one big one. “If you get 20 CT scans through your 10 years of indolent lymphoma and you add the amount of radiation you get with each CT scan and then multiply it and get a value, that it’s very different if you get exposed during an explosion with the same value at just one time,” he says.”
That’s “because your DNA has the ability to repair and to fix things [but] if they get exposed to a really high amount of this radiation and free radicals, then the DNA will get damaged.”
He explains that continued small exposures make for “a different situation” in the body. “I think that you need to be careful not to do too many scans, but in many situations, the imaging is really essential for us, the clinicians, to know what to do, what should be the next step.”
Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.
Dr. Jakub Svoboda is a medical oncologist at Penn Medicine, and associate professor of medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Read More
