Noteboom The Law Firm

VA Overusing Bone Scans For Prostate Cancer Patients

A recent study of patients utilizing the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) healthcare services found bone scans used for veterans with low-risk prostate cancer (PCa) were "extensively overused."

The study further concluded bone scans not only created pointless unease and unwarranted stress in PCa patients, their overuse is forcing the VA to spend money unnecessarily.

Researchers studied the medical records of 1,598 veterans with PCa and a mean age of 67.3, who had been treated at the Southern California VA medical center. A total of 519 men were diagnosed with low-risk disease. Of those, 132 were given bone scans without a single positive result.

This study was very localized to Southern California VA medical centers using information drawn only from veteran-patients in that locale. It is easy to see how the findings can be applied to the entire VA health care system. That does not, however, imply the results would be duplicated with private healthcare providers.

One issue of particular concern to researchers was the high number of patients requiring second opinions following their initial bone scan. The second opinion normally involves the patient undergoing more image-producing procedures such as CT scans and MRIs.

Not only do these procedures expose patients to second doses of needless radiation, but they add to the total expense of the treatment.