A study published this week in the journal Cancer shows that people who have had dental X-rays are more likely to develop a type of brain tumor called meningioma than those who have not. This does not prove that X-rays cause tumors, but supports previous research about the connection. Dental X-rays have also been implicated in thyroid cancer.
“It’s a cautionary tale … we do know that radiation can cause tumors, and we have to be judicious with its use,” said Dr. Donald O’Rourke, an associate professor of neurosurgery at the University of Pennsylvania who was not involved in the study.
Meningiomas are the most frequently occurring tumor in the head. They are located in the meninges, the tissues covering the brain. The vast majority are “benign” – or noncancerous – but, depending on their location, could cause blindness or other serious neurological damage. Those in the skull base are more difficult to remove in their entirety. Depending on the tumor, surgery may not be required.
Dr. Elizabeth Brooks Claus, director of medical research at Yale University’s School of Public Health, led the Cancer study, which focused on patients whose tumors required surgery. The patients were mostly Caucasian because of the regions from which they came; Claus’ group plans a follow-up looking at more African Americans, who have a statistically increased risk for meningiomas.
The average age of the 1,433 patient participants was 57, which means their exposures to dental X-rays were likely of a higher radiation doses because of older technology, Claus said. But they ranged between 20 and 79 years old, and came from select parts of the United States. Researchers also looked at data from 1,350 people with similar characteristics who had never had a meningioma.
The meningioma patients had more than a two-fold increased likelihood of having ever experienced a dental X-ray test called a bitewing exam. Depending on the age at which the exams were done, those who’d had these exams on a yearly basis, or more often, were 1.4 to 1.9 times more likely to have had a meningioma.
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