Estimating the Radiation-Induced Cancer Risks in Pediatric Computed Tomography

Document Type : Original Paper

Author

Department of Medical Physics, Faculty of Medicine, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran

Abstract

Introduction
One of the central questions in radiological protection is the magnitude of the risks from low doses of radiation, related to the justification and optimization of the diagnostic medical exposures. Therefore, the aim of this study was to estimate the cancer incidence and mortality risks in children of different ages, sizes, and ethnicities undergoing computed tomography examinations.
Materials and Methods
In this study, the risk estimations were performed, using the organ dose data of 16 pediatric voxel phantoms obtained in our previous publications. In addition, we employed the risk models recommended by the committee of biological effects of ionizing radiation for all solid cancers, leukemia, and cancers of several specific sites. Linear interpolation was also applied for the risk estimations of different ages.
Results
According to the results of this study, there are significant differences between the cancer risks for some organs even in the phantoms of the same age. Therefore, it was concluded that using the reference data for all children with anatomical discrepancies would lead to under- or overestimation of the risk values. In addition, only the amount of dose cannot be the appropriate representative of the risk, and parameters like size, age, and gender might have direct impacts on cancer incidence and mortality risks.
Conclusion
The findings of the current study are useful to update the information about the individual and the long-term collective public health risks.

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Iranian Journal of Medical Physics
Volume 13, Issue 4
November and December 2016
Pages 218-227

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History

  • Receive Date: 20 August 2016
  • Revise Date: 15 September 2016
  • Accept Date: 04 November 2016

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