Riffing On My Latest Lab and CT Results

[bkoffman]

I just posted an update on the good news on my lab, CT scans, and general CLL (chronic lymphocytic leukemia) status on my blog bkoffman.blogspot.com but of course I veer off into discussions of CT scans, residual disease and future therapies.

[Mikey47]

Congratulations Brian on your continuing good results.

As regards CT scans we also need to take into account that those of us with 17p and 11q are more sensitive to ionising radiation and have impaired ability to repair DNA damage. Ionising radiation is very good at breaking DNA double strands.

I have taken this up with my consultant who is sympathetic but having put my concerns to the trial team I have received an emphatic 'NO' I can't substitute MRI for CT scans. I'm having scans (neck to pelvis) every 3 months, my next one, on 28th August.

A Royal College of Radiology document I have describing the process of 'justification' and guidelines suggests the factors to be considered, including:

"3.2.4 Understanding the immediate and cumulative radiation effects. This is of particular importance in exposures involving high radiation dose especially when there is a likelihood that repeated imaging will be required, for example for the long-term monitoring of malignant disease. In these cases the risk to benefit ratio of the imaging procedure should be presented explicitly to the patient through discussion between the referrer (usually an oncology specialist) and the practitioner (the clinical radiologist)".

Have you kept a record of your accumulated radiation dosage? You said you've had probably 24 scans, were they whole body? I found this helpful for estimated risk xrayrisk.com

Hope your results continue to be so good.

[bkoffman CLL CURE Hero in reply to Mikey47]

Agreed. It just doesn't happen. I did switch to MRIs before the trial. Ironically, the only good news is that being 63, the risk of a secondary cancer developing is lower with only 2 or 3 decades ahead of me.