One trend that stands out from 2010 is what I call screening madness. I’m referring specifically and solely to the promotion of screening tests outside the boundaries of evidence and to the emphasis only on the benefits of screening tests with concomitant downplaying or complete disregard for the harms of screening. Why is this a health policy issue? There are several obvious reasons. If we don’t communicate balanced information…
It’s been another challenging week for journalists covering various screening stories. First the new analysis of Swedish mammography studies. Some familiar flaws surfaced in some stories. Then came the followup analysis of the National Lung Screening Trial – first reported last fall. This week various headlines announced: • More evidence CT scans better at detecting lung cancer • Study bolsters evidence that screening reduces lung ca…
Two months ago, I read on the BMJ website “Citizens’ jury disagrees over whether screening leaflet should put reassurance before accuracy.” I’ve been following some of the controversies in the British National Health Service’s breast screening program for some time. An example here. I asked Angela Coulter, PhD, to write a guest blog post about the matter. She is a member of the Expert Panel on Invitation Support Materials for …
Results of two studies published in the Annals of Internal Medicine point to benefits of biennial mammography screening starting age 40 for women at increased risk. One evaluated data from 66 published articles and from the Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium. The authors’ conclusion: Extremely dense breasts and first-degree relatives with breast cancer were each associated with at least a 2-fold increase in risk for breast cancer in w…
I asked one of our medical editor/story reviewers, Richard M. Hoffman, MD, MPH, to write about the news stories predicting what the US Preventive Services Task Force will recommend on prostate cancer screening. Hoffman is a general internist, is a Professor of Medicine at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine and a staff physician at the Albuquerque VA Medical Center. He also serves as Interim Director for Cancer Prevention at the Un…
All over the country in May, hospitals are offering “Free Throat Cancer Screening.” A Google search turned up dozens of results for that specific term or the related “oral, head and neck cancer screening.” Here’s one example, promoting “Oral, Head and Neck Cancer Awareness Week, May 8-14.” This promotion uses ominous warnings: Can you live without your voice? What about your jaw? Would you miss it i…
(If you were looking for the “Choosing Wisely” campaign article, please click here. In the April 9 email digest that many of you receive, I inadvertently entered the wrong link – which has brought you to the article below instead. Although it’s a good one as well!) Dr. Margaret McCartney writes in the BMJ with a UK physician’s perspective on “What companies don’t tell you about screening,” questi…
Headlines every day in the New York Daily News are luring men in as part of a mass prostate cancer screening campaign which the American Cancer Society not only does not endorse – its chief medical officer recommends against. Yet the paper brags that it is beginning its second decade of this non-evidence-based campaign. Sample headlines: • Doctors urge New York men to take advantage of free, city-wide PSA testing • What you don’t k…
…offs of harms and benefits (debits and credits) – and this was for 50-year old women, for whom the evidence of benefit is stronger than it is for those in their 40s. Welch explains, “The benefit of breast cancer screening is that some breast cancer deaths can be avoided. Unfortunately, it doesn’t happen very often: most women destined to die from breast cancer, will still do so – even if they are regularly screened.̶…
…annual workshop but this will be my first. I’ve always heard wonderful things about it from past participants - journalists, policymakers and public health professionals. One of this year’s workshop themes will be screening tests – which any reader of this blog knows is a favorite topic of mine. The organizers state: The five-day workshop is an intense, hands-on learning experience that uses a small-group, problem-based approach…
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