The Use of CT Scan - Book Report/Review Example

The safety of frequent use of CT scan has long been debated upon. Those opposing the use of multiple CT scans believe that the radiation that a patient is exposed to during frequent CT scans, especially when monitoring the progression of disease or the effectiveness of a particular treatment approach, is enough to produce genetic mutations that lead to stochastic health threats to an individual, including cancer and birth defects (US Environmental Protection Agency, 2011). This has gained more support when Science Daily reported recently (March 30, 2011) that researchers from UC Davis has found that frequent monitoring through CT scan causes significant increase in the risk of developing secondary tumor growth after surgery of nonseminomatous germ cell tumor, the most common type of testicular cancer.

The study, which looked into 7, 301 men diagnosed with the condition from between 1988 and 2006, suggested that these findings should be reflective of how testicular cancer patients are advised when deciding on how their conditions will be managed. In fact, they added, frequent CT scans should be replaced with MRI or Ultrasound, which emit less radiation. Also, two doses of chemotherapy and lymph node dissection should be considered more as a treatment option for testicular cancer instead of active surveillance, which uses the frequent CT scan imaging for monitoring.

This should be done immediately as patients tend to choose active surveillance over the other two for fear of having erectile dysfunction and other physiological abnormalities upon chemotherapy or lymph node dissection (Science Daily, 2011). However, more supporting evidence should be collected. What hampers the scientific community from doing so is the fact that the effects of chronic radiation, if present, only manifests after many years of use. This means that an equally long-term study should be made in order to verify the findings of these UC Davis researchers.

Until then, the debate still continues. References US Environmental Protection Agency. (2011). Radiation Protection. Retrieved at: http://epa.gov/radiation/understand/health_effects.html#whatkind. Science Daily. (2011). Frequent CT Scanning for Testicular Cancer Surveillance Associated with Secondary Malignancies. Retrieved at: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/03/110330192550.htm