[ RadSafe ] CT Screening Detected Radiologist's Kidney Cancer Early

[John Jacobus]

Dr. Looney,
It is not unusal for radiologist to find occult
dieases in patients.  When I was at the Naval Hospital
in Charleston, SC, in the 1980's the radiologist found
three lung cancers in one week.  

The issue is whether or not self-referral is a good
public health policy and use of resources.  Do the
benefits of mass screening of the public compare to
the risks?  And is not only radiation risks.  Charges
of CT scans were running $1k per head, body or
abdomen. That total $3K.  It is not uncommon to see a
report that says, that there is a suspicious lesion in
the liver, kidney, etc.  There was a facility in the
Washington, DC, area that had a finding on every
study.  (Apparently, a lot of livers look
"suspecious.")  Of course, the patient now is
concerned and has further test and possibly in
surgery.  As a physician, I am sure you deal with
anxious patients frequently.  For this one facility in
DC, there were no positive findings of cancers or
serious diseases.  

Yes, I belong to the "group of scientist who believe
that truth does not exist until it has been
peer-reviewed and published."  Don't you? 
Essentially, there is no statistic proof that mass
screening of asymtomatic individuals improves public
health.  There is ancedotal evidence as in your case,
but no scientific of such a benefit.

--- "DR. GERALD LOONEY" <docger at hotmail.com> wrote:


---------------------------------

John, I am not a radiologist:  I merely wrote that
article for radiologists and their patients.  No one
knows how many self-referrals have saved lives, but I
do know several physician colleagues who have found
occult cancers in themselves with full-body scans,
lesions not detected otherwise with watchful waiting. 
However, you seem to belong to a large group of
scientists who believe that truth does not exist until
it has been peer-reviewed and published; I, on the
other hand, have an old-fashioned belief that Veritas
Vos Liberabit. Gerry





---------------------------------

From:  John Jacobus <crispy_bird at yahoo.com>
To:  "DR. GERALD LOONEY" <docger at hotmail.com>
CC:  radsafe <radsafe at radlab.nl>
Subject:  Re: [ RadSafe ] CT Screening Detected
Radiologist's Kidney Cancer Early
Date:  Wed, 9 Nov 2005 14:56:52 -0800 (PST)
>Dr. Looney,
>I am sorry if you feel that way, but you have not
>answered the fundamental question:  besides yourself,
>how many other self-referrals have resulted in
>positive findings of occult diseases?
>
>Since you are a radiologist, I think that one might
>say that your exposures to ionizing radiation did not
>produce a hormesis response.  Would you agree to that
>statement?
>
>As for your being a malcontent, I never said or
>implied that.  But I would also ask if you continue
to
>
>get CT scans but I assume that you do as follow-up
>studies.
>
>. . .

+++++++++++++++++++
On Oct. 5, 1947, in the first televised White House address, President Truman asked Americans to refrain from eating meat on Tuesdays and poultry on Thursdays to help stockpile grain for starving people in Europe. 

-- John
John Jacobus, MS
Certified Health Physicist
e-mail:  crispy_bird at yahoo.com


	
		
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