Prenatal X-ray, no risk for kids

Sun, 30 Dec 2007 20:30:17

Swedish scientists believe that prenatal exposure to diagnostic X-rays does not increase the overall risk of childhood brain tumors.

However, their study suggests abdominal radiography can raise the incidence of primitive neuroectodermal tumors (PNET).

According to the article published in the British Journal of Cancer, prenatal exposure does not raise any risk for high or low-grade astrocytoma, ependymoma, germ cell tumor, or other rare or incompletely specified tumors.

The study revealed PNET was the only malignancy associated with abdominal X-ray exposure; however, the association was not statistically significant. No effects were reported for non-abdominal X-rays.

Scientists concluded that neural stem cells are extra sensitive during their differentiation and that radiation-induced DNA damage could initiate malignant transformation, leading to the development of embryonic CNS tumors such as PNET.

PKH/HGH