International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics

Women who undergo CT scans during pregnancy do not heighten the risk of their unborn child developing cancer, a new study has revealed.

Canadian researchers looked at the medical records of 1.8 million pairs of mothers and children in Ontario, identifying 5,590 who had undergone a CT scan or other nuclear medicine diagnostic test while pregnant.

Co-author of the study Dr Joel Ray said: "We found that the rate of childhood cancer in the women who were not exposed was 1.56 cancers for every 10,000 child years of follow up. In the exposed group, the women who had had a CT scan or nuclear medicine test in pregnancy, the rate of cancer in their children was 1.13 for 10,000 child years."

Recently, a study by researchers at Vanderbilt University in the US found women who undergo radiotherapy to the womb or ovaries in childhood could have problems with having a child later in life.

Posted by David Smith