Quantifying entrance skin dose for early diagnose of lung cancer

Abstract

Lung cancer is disease that can cause death in a short time, but it is almost never detected at an early stage, because its symptons are not specific, such as coughing and lack of appetite. In some patients who have a smoking habit, it is easier to be suspected of having a tumor or lung cancer. In order to detect a tumor or lung cancer, a chest X-ray examination is generally done as an early diagnosis. As we have already known, exposure of X-ray radiation to the body can have a negative impact, therefore the dose of X-ray radiation exposure must be minimized. In this study a measurement of entrance skin dose (ESD) was performed on chest X-ray examination in patients suspected of having a tumor or lung cancer. The results showed that patients who had symptoms similar to those of tumor or lung cancer had higher ESD than those who did not. Although the radiation dose is higher than dose on routine chest X-ray examination, it only shows abnormality of radiological photogaraph but do not accurately indicate the presence of tumor or cancer.