Science / Medicine : X-Ray, Cancer Link Discounted

Diagnostic X-rays, given to about 70% of the U.S. population each year to check everything from lungs to broken bones, do not appear to greatly increase the risk of leukemia and other forms of cancer, researchers from the National Cancer Institute reported last week.

“Our findings are, for the most part, reassuring and confirm that diagnostic X-ray procedures are unlikely to be a major cause of leukemia, lymphoma or myeoloma in our society,” they wrote in the Journal of the American Medical Assn.

The findings were based on a study of records involving 25,000 X-rays administered to adults in two health plans in Northern California and the Portland, Ore., area over several years. Those in the study who developed cancer were compared to other patients in the same plans.

“Despite an extensive evaluation of the radiologic experience of 565 cases of leukemia and 318 cases of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma . . . we were not able to demonstrate convincingly an association with diagnostic X-ray procedures,” the study said.