Cancer Risks from Radiation Medical Imaging in Children: A Scoping Review

Background: radiation medical imaging is a valuable tool in detecting diseases. Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation Report (BEIR VII Phase 2) suggested that radiation exposures, even at low dosages, may impose stochastic cancer risks. However, radiation medical imaging has yet been fully understood; further studies on this subject are much needed. Over several decades, there have been much research dedicated to studying the impact of low-dose diagnostic imaging on health, particularly in the children population. Purpose: This scoping review is to gather existing literature on the cancer risks associated with radiation medical imaging in children, and to identify gaps in the literature for future studies on this topic. Methods: Scopus and PubMed databases were selected for the literature search and the scoping review methodology was applied in this research. Results: The study has spanned over three thousand articles (N=3,191) and by applying the exclusion and inclusion criteria, twelve (12) articles have been chosen for this research. The research data suggested that exposure to (a) dental X-rays may be linked with thyroid cancer; due to limited research that had been conducted, more studies are needed to provide clearer understanding of the health impacts, (b) X-rays may not have any association with cancer, again, more research is required on this subject, (c) computed tomography scans may be linked to various cancers including thyroid, leukemia, solid cancer, and cancer mortality, and (d) angiography, based on mathematical cancer risk model, seems to suggest there are possible cancer risk. Today, there have been no studies performed on patient-level. Conclusion: The research indicates that there are potential cancer risks associated with dental x-ray, angiography (mathematical model), and CT scans; however, due to limited research that has been performed up to this point, further studies are required on cancer risks from radiation medical imaging in children