Little Concern

[TOLIN26]

Hi Everybody, My Name Is Maria, 35 Years And I Born With Scoliosis, I Don't Know Exactly Of The Lengh Of My Curves, But Compare What I Saw In Some Other Persons My Back Is Really Bad, I Lived With This Since I Born. I Used Something Like The Persons Use When They Brake A Leg, The White Hard Wrapp. From My Waist Trough My Neck When I Was 3 Years Old. After That The Doctors Told My Parents They Can't Do Anything More. That Was In Mexico City Where I Am From. When I Came To This Country In 1986, My School Nurse Send Me To Shrinners Hospital, And They Told Me The Samething They Can't Do Anything For Me, That I Already Grew Up And My Bones Were Ok, I Was 18 At That Time, I Never Had Problems With My Condition Some Times I Forgat I Have Scoliosis, I Can Do Whatever A Normal Person Does, No Pain Or Anything Like That, But Now I Have Problems With My Breast, I Went To Doctor Because A Lump In My Breast, They Send Me For Mamogram Followed For An Ultrasound And They Find Multiple Cysts On Both Breast And A Lump, They Want Me To Do A Biopsyto Make Sure Is Not Cancerous But Now I'm A Little Concern If All The Radiation That I Receive Because Of The X Rays From My Scoliosis When I Was Young Can Be A Cause Or A Posibility Of Having Breast Cancer. Does Anyone Here Have Been Experience This Problem Before? Thanks

[The Professor]

x-rays and cancer risk

How many x-rays did you have as a child and as a teenager?

A few studies have shown a slightly increased cancer risk (~10-20%) from repeated full spinal x-rays, as far as I can recall. The x-rays are now taken with your chest facing the film and back facing the x-ray source instead of the other way around, to reduce exposure of breast tissue and the genitals to the radiation.

However, as with most cancers, it's impossible to point to any one event as the culprit. Do you have any kind of family history of cancer?