CT scans can save lives, so who should get one?

There is disagreement among medical professionals and insurance companies over the need for widespread CT scan screening

From Dr. Sanjay Gupta
CNN Medical Unit

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- When Jerry Seneker saw an ad for a CT scan that would detect all kinds of serious health problems, the seemingly healthy 57-year-old gladly paid more than $500 to get one.

"The heart was a little calcified, the lungs were clear, but I had an abnormality in my kidney, described by them as a mass," he said.

That mass was cancer, and just three weeks later, Seneker had his kidney removed. The cancer never had a chance to spread.

"It would have killed me. It would have shortened my life. There's no question about it," he said.

Despite cases like Seneker's, there's disagreement among medical experts and insurance companies over the need for widespread CT scan screening.

Value of screening questioned

CHAT Discuss the merits of full body scans with Dr. Sanjay Gupta Friday, June 1 at 12:00 p.m. ET     QUICKVOTE Would you get a full body scan? Yes - it's worth the high price No - I'll wait for my doctor to tell me I need one View Results

Businesses across the country are now offering CT scans to healthy people, promising to find the earliest signs of disease.

"It's just another piece of information, basically the same as cholesterol level, the same as your blood pressure," said Dr. Jane Eicher, an osteopathic doctor who works with CAT scan 2000, a mobile CT scan provider.

Typically, doctors scan patients who are showing signs of symptoms of a problem. But many say there's no evidence to support widespread screening.

"I think we really don't know yet whether it does a better job of picking up disease early," said Dr. Kimberly Rask of the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta.

A group of radiologists agreed.

"To date there is no evidence that total body CT screening is cost-efficient or effective in prolonging life," the American College of Radiology said in a statement.

'Helping the population'

Eicher insists full-body scans save lives.

"Chances are they're going to find out something about their body that they want to know ... and we know that what we are doing is helping the population," she said.

Doctors say if you want to get scanned, be sure the provider uses state-of-the-art CT scan technology, and there's a board-certified radiologist to interpret the results.

As the debate rages over the allocation of health-care dollars, insurance companies are reluctant to cover the cost of CAT scans for healthy people. They argue the costs are too high and the chances of actually finding something are too small.

For Seneker, though, the verdict is in.

"Nobody could convince me that it wasn't a good idea ... for me, or for anybody else to do it," he said. "I don't know who would feel that they could put a price on a life."