CA
A 45-year-old member asked:
Does cancer usually show up as white or black on an x-ray?
2 doctor answers • 4 doctors weighed in
Dr. Barry Rosenanswered
General Surgery 36 years experience
Grey-to-White: When looking at an x-ray, air is black and bone is white and everything else is somewhere in between the two. In general, cancers will look white but so will many, many other things. When looking for a cancer, we are looking at the shape, size, and relationship with adjacent structures. All things considered, it is a lot safer to read a radiologist's report than try and interpret a film.
Created for people with ongoing healthcare needs but benefits everyone.
6.2k viewsReviewed >2 years ago
A Verified Doctoranswered
Surgical Oncology 20 years experience
Either: On an x-ray, white means dense tissue (bone, teeth, etc), while dark means tissue with high water or air content (like the air-filled stomach or lungs). So some cancers are white on x-ray, while others are black.
Created for people with ongoing healthcare needs but benefits everyone.
5.5k viewsAnswered >2 years ago
Similar questions
United Arab Emirates
A 23-year-old male asked:
What do black and white areas show in a X ray?
1 doctor answer • 1 doctor weighed in
A Verified Doctoranswered
Radiology 29 years experience
X-ray: Simply, the black areas on an x-ray are where relatively higher numbers of x-rays were able to pass through the patient and hit the film and cause it to turn black. The white areas are where something was in front of the x-ray film that stopped the x-rays from reaching the film, like bone or metal.
Created for people with ongoing healthcare needs but benefits everyone.
2.7k viewsAnswered >2 years ago
Last updated Jul 7, 2017
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