Companies are selling body scans to seemingly healthy patients, promising peace of mind. Traditional medical professionals are concerned about the costs.
The financial cost for a preventive scan ranges from $650 to several thousand dollars. Insurance generally doesnโt cover it.
Demand for these types of procedures has surged, particularly among the wealthy, healthcare professionals say. People are driven by a fear of mortality. The clinics say they can help patients catch early-stage health issues such as cancer or aneurysms before symptoms occur. Kim Kardashian recently shared an Instagram post touting her own scan from the preventive-MRI company Prenuvo.
But beyond the upfront price tag, these scans can trigger unnecessary expenses and anxiety, say some radiologists and family doctors. The detection of unexpected masses can lead to follow-up tests and procedures, even if these โincidentalomasโ are usually benign. The clinics generally donโt handle that in-house, instead flagging concerns that patients can take to a specialist.
And while many scans employ magnetic resonance, which has no radiation exposure, others do expose patients to potentially unhealthy radiation.
โThese are a bad idea,โ says Dr. Mirza Rahman, a physician and president of the American College of Preventive Medicine. โFollow-ups mean everything from more costs to more procedures that may lead to complications.โ
The ACPM has published formal guidance recommending against full-body scans in asymptomatic patients. The American College of Radiology released a statement in April: โThere is no documented evidence that total body screening is cost-efficient or effective in prolonging life.โ
Radiologists in the Netherlands who conducted a meta-analysis of studies on preventive full-body MRI screenings found scans yielded false positives 16% of the time on average.
โWe often see patients coming to the hospital because of an incidental finding, and we have to deal with it,โ says Dr. Thomas Kwee, associate professor in the University of Groningenโs radiology department and lead writer on the meta-analysis. โWe scratch our heads and we think, is this really necessary?โ
But healthcare professionals acknowledge preventive scans arenโt going awayโand are likely to become even more popular among wealthy patients who feel detection of any life-altering illness is worth the extra hassle and cost.
The body-scan business
There are dozens of clinics that specialize in or offer full-body preventive imaging, including MRI, CT scans and DEXA scans, which can measure bone density and body composition. There are more health risks associated with imaging that uses radiation, such as CT scans, radiologists say. Exposure to low-dose radiation slightly elevates a personโs risk of developing cancer, research shows. (Though less risky, MRIs can be longer and more uncomfortable.)
โDisease is there and if you can go and look for it, youโll find it there,โ says Dr. David Fein, medical director at Princeton Longevity Center, a private firm offering full-body and cardiac CT scans at its four locations, including in Princeton, N.J.
Fein says he rarely encounters false positives, and those that occur seldom require more than an additional follow-up scan. Secondary appointments are more likely to be covered by insurance, say doctors, since they are founded on a concern.
An MRI scan of the upper part of a human body. PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, ISTOCK
Taylor Dukes, a 33-year-old nurse practitioner with a functional medicine practice in Fort Worth, Texas, believes her 2022 Prenuvo scan was a lifesaver. The company offered it free to her. At the time, Dukes says, she felt no symptoms and didnโt anticipate the MRI would reveal a โsignificant finding.โ
Dukes was at the beach with her two young boys when she opened the online report. There was a mass on her brain, and among several potential diagnoses was an aggressive, often lethal tumor. Subsequent imaging and removal surgery revealed the mass was a less aggressive but still cancerous tumor called oligodendroglioma, says Dukes. If left untreated, the condition could cause seizures and, in some cases, death.
โFor me, early detection literally saved my life,โ she says. Prenuvo, which has eight clinic locations including its headquarters in Silicon Valley has since shared Dukesโs story on social media.
โMany of us have felt the devastating effects of cancer and oftentimes, itโs diagnosed in its later stages, where the chances of survival decrease, treatment becomes less effective and quality of life can quickly decline,โ says Andrew Lacy, Prenuvoโs chief executive, in a statement, adding, โThe risk of uncovering findings of indeterminate significance and false positives are not new and exist in any radiologic examination.โ
Recommended scans
Some doctors may recommend full-body scans in asymptomatic patients with certain risk factors, including a genetic predisposition to forming multiple tumors, says Dr. Resten Imaoka, a radiologist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends annual lung-cancer screening with CT scan for adults between ages 50 and 80 who have smoked the equivalent of a pack a day for 20 years and currently smokeโor who quit within the past 15 years.
Dr. Ron Primas, a concierge medicine doctor who specializes in prevention and longevity, recommends full-body MRIs for people with strong family histories of certain malignancies or aneurysms. He says 15% or 20% of his patients have done it. He is cautious about potential drawbacks, including anxiety caused by incidentalomas. He recalls a recent patient whose scan showed a possible solid mass on the kidney. It turned out to be a benign cyst.
Still, he expects a coming surge in demand for scans.
โIn September when everybody comes back from the Hamptons and they all start getting physicals for the year, Iโm sure Iโm going to get a lot more requests,โ he says.
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