ArticleBritish journal of cancer2015
Are the studies on cancer risk from CT scans biased by indication? Elements of answer from a large-scale cohort study in France.
Article in British journal of cancer, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 93 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
93 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 194 citations in OpenAlex.
- Radiation safety and cancer risks in pediatric computed tomography: a systematic review of large-scale cohort studies.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2026Pooled it
- Cancer Effects of Low to Moderate Doses of Ionizing Radiation in Young People with Cancer-Predisposing Conditions: A Systematic Review.Cancer epidemiology, biomarkers & prevention : a publication of the American Association for Cancer Research, cosponsored by the American Society of Preventive Oncology · 2022Pooled it
- Early life ionizing radiation exposure and cancer risks: systematic review and meta-analysis.Pediatric radiology · 2021Pooled it
- Epidemiological Studies of Low-Dose Ionizing Radiation and Cancer: Rationale and Framework for the Monograph and Overview of Eligible Studies.Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Monographs · 2020Pooled it
- Skeletal surveys in young, injured children: A systematic review.Child abuse & neglect · 2018Pooled it
- Radiation exposure from computerized tomography and risk of childhood leukemia: Finnish register-based case-control study of childhood leukemia (FRECCLE).Haematologica · 2018Trial
- Radiation dose of computed tomography in pediatric head trauma imaging.Neuroradiology · 2026Article
- Medical Imaging and Pediatric and Adolescent Hematologic Cancer Risk.The New England journal of medicine · 2025Article
- Enhanced γ-H2AX Foci Frequency and Altered Gene Expression in Participants Exposed to Ionizing Radiation During I-131 Nuclear Medicine Procedures.Nuclear medicine and molecular imaging · 2024Article
- Risk of hematologic malignant neoplasms from head CT radiation in children and adolescents presenting with minor head trauma: a nationwide population-based cohort study.European radiology · 2024Article
- CanCHD Study of Hematopoietic Cancers in Children With and Without Genetic Syndromes.Journal of the American Heart Association · 2024Article
- Risk of hematological malignancies from CT radiation exposure in children, adolescents and young adults.Nature medicine · 2023Article
- Radiation exposure and leukaemia risk among cohorts of persons exposed to low and moderate doses of external ionising radiation in childhood.British journal of cancer · 2023Article
- No increase in translocated chromosomal aberrations, an indicator of ionizing radiation exposure, in childhood thyroid cancer in Fukushima Prefecture.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Computed tomography scan radiation and brain cancer incidence.Neuro-oncology · 2023Article
- Lympho-hematopoietic malignancies risk after exposure to low dose ionizing radiation during cardiac catheterization in childhood.European journal of epidemiology · 2023Article
- Radiation Exposure and Lifetime Attributable Risk of Cancer Incidence and Mortality from Low- and Standard-Dose CT Chest: Implications for COVID-19 Pneumonia Subjects.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- Deep Learning Techniques to Diagnose Lung Cancer.Cancers · 2022Review
- Cancer risks among studies of medical diagnostic radiation exposure in early life without quantitative estimates of dose.The Science of the total environment · 2022Review
- Understanding the harm of low-dose computed tomography radiation to the body (Review).Experimental and therapeutic medicine · 2022Review
33 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
- Commented on by
- Commented on by
Authors and funding
9 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundRecent epidemiological results suggested an increase of cancer risk after receiving computed tomography (CT) scans in childhood or adolescence. Their interpretation is questioned due to the lack of information about the reasons for examination. Our objective was to estimate the cancer risk related to childhood CT scans, and examine how cancer-predisposing factors (PFs) affect assessment of the radiation-related risk.
methodsThe cohort included 67,274 children who had a first scan before the age of 10 years from 2000 to 2010 in 23 French departments. Cumulative X-rays doses were estimated from radiology protocols. Cancer incidence was retrieved through the national registry of childhood cancers; PF from discharge diagnoses.
resultsDuring a mean follow-up of 4 years, 27 cases of tumours of the central nervous system, 25 of leukaemia and 21 of lymphoma were diagnosed; 32% of them among children with PF. Specific patterns of CT exposures were observed according to PFs. Adjustment for PF reduced the excess risk estimates related to cumulative doses from CT scans. No significant excess risk was observed in relation to CT exposures.
conclusionsThis study suggests that the indication for examinations, whether suspected cancer or PF management, should be considered to avoid overestimation of the cancer risks associated with CT scans.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.