REDWOOD CITY, Calif., July 21 (San Francisco News Online) — A brain tumor found during a preventive scan for a former “Bachelor” contestant, as Fox News reported, has put full-body MRI screening back in the spotlight. For most people who feel well, though, the bigger question is not whether the scan can find something. It is whether finding more things actually helps enough to justify the cost, the stress and the follow-up tests.
What is a full-body MRI?
A full-body MRI is a scan that images large parts of the body at once. The American Cancer Society says MRI does not use ionizing radiation, unlike CT scans. Some companies market these scans as a way to look for cancer and other hidden problems early. Prenuvo, for example, says its scan can detect more than 500 conditions, including early-stage tumors.
Why are doctors cautious?
The Food and Drug Administration says it knows of no scientific evidence showing that scanning people without symptoms provides more benefit than harm. The American College of Radiology said in an April 2023 statement that there is not enough evidence to recommend total-body screening for people with no symptoms, no risk factors and no family history suggesting disease. The American College of Preventive Medicine says doctors should not use whole-body scans for early tumor detection in people without symptoms.
In a JAMA editorial reported by ABC News, Matthew Davenport of the University of Michigan and Dr. Scott Reeder said no major medical group recommends whole-body MRI for the general population because the benefits have not been proven. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force also gives pancreatic cancer screening in asymptomatic adults who are not known to be at high risk a D rating, meaning the harms outweigh the benefits.
What can go wrong?
The American Cancer Society says the biggest concern is not radiation. It is what happens after the scan. Full-body MRI can show “spots” or “shadows” that turn out to be normal body variations, the society says. Those findings can lead to anxiety, repeat scans, biopsies or other procedures.
Doctors call those unexpected findings incidental findings. When a scan flags something that later turns out not to matter, that is a false positive. Doctors also worry about overdiagnosis, meaning a problem is found that would never have caused symptoms or death, and overtreatment, meaning a person gets treated for something that may not have needed treatment.
A scan can also give false reassurance if it misses a problem, the Cleveland Clinic says.
In San Francisco, UCSF radiology researcher Dr. Rebecca Smith-Bindman told CBS San Francisco there is “not a stitch of evidence” that whole-body MRI helps people live longer or better. She also warned that false positives can lead to more testing and more worry.
How much does it cost?
The American Cancer Society says insurance companies rarely pay for full-body MRI because it is not part of standard medical care. WebMD says scans can cost thousands of dollars and are usually not covered by insurance.
So what should a reader take from this?
The current evidence does not support routine full-body MRI screening for people without symptoms or a known higher risk. That does not mean a scan can never find an important problem. But the FDA and major medical groups say the balance of possible benefit and harm is still uncertain for the general public.
For a person deciding whether to book one, the practical takeaway is simple: this is not a routine screening test that doctors broadly recommend, and the promise of early detection comes with real tradeoffs.
