Description: WEDNESDAY, Nov. 28 (HealthDay News) -- The number of CT scans performed in the United States has increased dramatically since the 1980s, and that means an increased risk of cancer for patients caused by exposure to high doses of radiation, a new report contends.

Today, more than 62 million CT scans a year are done in the United States, compared with 3 million in 1980. A CT scan -- an imaging method that uses X-rays to create cross-sectional pictures of the body -- can have radiation doses 50 to 250 times greater than the dose of a conventional X-ray, the report's authors note.

"The radiation doses from CT scans have been clearly demonstrated to increase cancer risk," David J. Brenner, director of the Columbia University Radiological Research Accelerator Facility, said during a news conference Tuesday. "On an individual basis, not a big individual risk, but a small risk applied to an increasingly large population spells trouble down the road," he added.

Brenner and his colleagu