The appeal of whole-body scans is clear: Who wouldn’t want to catch an illness before it causes serious damage?
The problem, according to experts, is that, except in very rare cases, there is no evidence that shows they can accomplish this. Not only that, but they come with their own set of risks and tradeoffs – starting with cost. (A scan can cost as much as $2,000 or more and isn’t typically covered by insurance.)
Another concern has been the radiation exposure you get with each CT scan (computed tomography). But even if you opt for the more recent MRI scans, which don’t expose you to radiation, whole-body scans can cause more harm than good when used for blanket screening tests without specific medical reasons, says Mirza Rahman, MD, president of the American College of Preventive Medicine.
Previously, in a strongly worded public letter in 2023 after Kim Kardashian promoted the scans on Instagram, Rahman questioned the profit motive of companies and doctors who encourage whole-body scans without systematic, scientifically rigorous evidence of effectiveness, unlike more targeted tests such as mammography or colonoscopy.
Today, he stands by that assessment. “I’m pretty blunt. I have talked about these folks as being the snake-oil salesmen of this century,” Rahman says. “The benefits are not outweighed by the risks.”
Scans Can Introduce Harm
Early diagnosis is meant to prevent harm, yet indiscriminate scans of low-risk people often introduce the risk of harm, says Matthew Davenport, MD, professor of radiology and urology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Whole-body scans often produce “incidental findings” that doctors don’t know how to interpret, according to Davenport’s 2023 paper in the American Journal of Roentgenology.
Doctors then order more tests that trigger yet more tests, in what can become “cascades of care,” with a number of negative effects, according to Davenport.
To start with, the discovery of an unexplained and ultimately harmless mass, nodule, or other abnormality can trigger unnecessary anxiety for patients as they await answers from follow-up testing.
Invasive testing to explore the problem could be far from harmless.
A doctor might do endoscopic ultrasound, which uses a thin, flexible tube with a light and a lens that is pushed into the body. The risks of such a procedure include bleeding, infection, tearing of an organ wall, and pancreatitis, among others.
Or a sample of the suspicious body part might be removed with a biopsy, which often involves inserting a needle into the patient then withdrawing fluid or a column of tissue. Possible complications include pain, infection, scarring, swelling, and excessive bleeding, among others.
“You’re basically signing up for hurting yourself,” says Davenport.
Whole-body scans may be warranted for certain high-risk patients, such as those who have Li-Fraumeni syndrome, which can trigger cancer development throughout the body, or those with multiple myeloma, says Davenport. But these cases are exceedingly rare.
“Very, very, very, very, very few people should get a whole-body MRI for part of clinical care, in my opinion.” And even then, says Davenport, it’s essential to consult with your doctor beforehand.
Top Medical Organizations Agree
Debates on social media suggest that MRIs can help catch fatal diseases such as pancreatic cancer before they spread. But the odds of spotting such an aggressive type of cancer within the small window to stop it is vanishingly small in patients who have no particular risk for the disease, according to Davenport’s research.
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force assigned a “D” rating, their lowest, to pancreatic cancer screening for adults without symptoms who aren’t known to be at high risk for the disease. The task force concluded the potential harms outweigh the potential benefits.
The ACPM’S official guidance specifically recommends that doctors “don’t use whole-body scans for early tumor detection” in people without symptoms of illness. (That guidance is from 2016, when CT scans dominated. Rahman, the ACPM’s president, says it’s being updated to include MRI.)
The American College of Radiology is also opposed even though its members could profit by giving whole-body scans. Their guidance says there is insufficient evidence to justify total-body screening without a specific reason, such as clinical symptoms, risk factors, or a family history with a specific disease or injury.
“To date, there is no documented evidence that total-body screening is cost-efficient or effective in prolonging life,” they say in an April 2023 statement.
“In addition, the ACR is concerned that such procedures will lead to the identification of numerous non-specific findings that will not ultimately improve patients’ health but will result in unnecessary follow-up testing and procedures, as well as significant expense.”