Estimation of lifetime attributable cancer risk from abdominal-pelvic pediatric CT procedures

This study aimed to estimate the lifetime attributable cancer risks (LARs) from abdominal-pelvic (AP) pediatric CT procedures. In addition, the effective and equivalent doses from AP CT procedures were computed. CT parameters for 120 pediatric patients who underwent AP CT examination were collected in this retrospective study during the period from January to March 2024. The collected data was divided into age groups; for each age group, 30 AP CT scans were collected and satisfied the criteria of the included data. The pediatric patient groups were aged: <1 year, 1≤−< 5 years, 5≤−<10 years, and 10≤−15 years. The effective doses from pediatric AP CT examination of male patients aged <1 year, 1≤−<5 years, 5≤−<10 years, and 10≤−15 years were 3.97, 4.35, 4.52, and 4.36 mSv, respectively. The effective doses for female pediatric patients exceeded those values for males by approximately 10%. The LARs of cancer incidence and mortality reveal that radiation-induced colon cancer (males and females) was the highest among all exposed organs. The LARs of all cancer incidence and mortality for females were higher than those for males, with an average of 52% and 46%, respectively. This highlights the importance of considering patients gender, taking accurate measures for radiation dose, and applying the “ALARA” principle. The LARs for cancer incidence and mortality from a single AP CT examination were found to be “very low”, However, avoiding accumulation of radiation dose from repetition of the CT examinations is critical to minimize the accumulative risk of radiation.