A team comprising of scientists, mainly from Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences in Toronto, has scrutinized 1.8 million mother-child pair reports in Ontario and identified 5,590 cases in which radio-diagnostic tests have been performed on the mother.

From 1992 to 2008, a study conducted on 1.8 million births, researchers have found that the chances of childhood cancer are same in both cases; one with the exposure and another without the non-exposure to radio-diagnostic testing.

Out of 160 pregnancies, only in one case is CT scan or nuclear medicine diagnostic test is done to diagnose ailments like lung clots, appendicitis or bleeding in the brain.

Dr. Joel Ray, a specialist in obstetrical medicine at St. Michael's Hospital said that the childhood cancer has been found in lesser number of children who have undergone radio-diagnostic tests.

In non radio-diagnosed test cases, out of 10,000 children, only 1.56 children have been diagnosed with cancer, while in cases of those that have undergone radio-diagnosed tests, 1.13 children out of 10,000 children have been diagnosed with cancer.

In spite of the lesser number of children suffering from childhood cancer, still cancer is the second major cause for the hospitalization and death of children up to 14 years of age.

The study has been published in September issue of the PLoS Medicine, the journal of Public Library of Science.