Short Note on Our Research in Cancer: Cell and DNA Damage from the Point of View of a Medical Physicist

Currently, there are approximately 80 million CT examinations [1] performed in the United States annually. This means that each patient is exposed to about 1013 photons/cm2 during the CT scan and most photon and their secondary electrons have a kinetic energy, which is higher than the ionization potential of patients DNA in cells. To date, due to the increasing number of CT examinations worldwide, the risk of getting cancer has been further increased. According to the literature, direct action of ionizing radiation (e.g. direct cell hits) is seen as less important, because about 2/3 of DNA damage is originated by indirect action of ionizing radiation (e.g. hydroxyl radicals). However, the damage to human DNA by X-ray imaging is a stochastic and also a quantum mechanical process.Therefore, more theoretical and medical physicists should investigate this topic.