Peter Ubel, M.D. is a physician and behavioral scientist at Duke University, and the author of Critical Decisions: How You and Your Doctor Can Make the Right Medical Choices Together.
I don’t know how I missed his November blog post that asked the question above, but I now know that it appeared on his own site and on Forbes.com.
It wasn’t until yesterday that I saw it on KevinMD.com.
Please read his full post. But here’s how he sets it up:
“Why was this recommendation greeted with such malaise when the same panel’s earlier and similar conclusions about prostate cancer screening and breast cancer screening (in women less than 40 years old) created a tsunami of criticism?”
In our continuing efforts on this site to try to help improve the public dialogue about screening tests, Ubel’s post is important.
And, in our quest to improve what journalists write about screening issues, we hope to see better efforts than the one by the former editor of Prevention magazine, who advocated ovarian cancer screening despite the lack of evidence.
Opinions on other issues in news, journals, PR, advertising, marketing
“Just one example of a wider phenomenon in which science is spun for the benefit of companies marketing clinical tests.” https://t.co/QqenHVKWLr
Journalist-patient @journotwit writes: “Like most men, I'll never forget my first time.” He’s done a great job chronicling his prostate patient experiences. https://t.co/JRNMxfKXa6
Why you should be a "medical conservative" - Lown Institute https://t.co/tipZeyuPp5
Comments (2)
Please note, comments are no longer published through this website. All previously made comments are still archived and available for viewing through select posts.
Greg Pawelski
January 9, 2013 at 12:12 pmI am one of those surviving loved ones who has seen the tragic consequences of an ovarian cancer diagnosis (before and after the chemotherapy concession). This is where I got the experience the rate of “false positives” that makes the CA125 inadequate for use “by itself” even for screening high-risk patients. Women screened annually for ovarian cancer are just as likely to die from the disease as women who didn’t have regular screening.
As Dr. Christine Berg from the National Institutes of Health stated in a recent study, “We know with ovarian cancer that when the disease is detected in stage 1 you can have 85-90 percent 5-year survival…The question is, can you detect the cancers that are destined on to be stage 3 or unfortunately stage 4 at an early enough stage that you can intervene?” My wife went 24 years after being diagnosed with stage 4 ovarian carcinoma. It is the “science” that doesn’t work.
One of my wife’s most remarkable sayings about her cancer, “it’s 90% Faith and the Will to Live, and 10% the Science of Medicine.”
Greg Pawelski
January 9, 2013 at 12:12 pmI am one of those surviving loved ones who has seen the tragic consequences of an ovarian cancer diagnosis (before and after the chemotherapy concession). This is where I got the experience the rate of “false positives” that makes the CA125 inadequate for use “by itself” even for screening high-risk patients. Women screened annually for ovarian cancer are just as likely to die from the disease as women who didn’t have regular screening.
As Dr. Christine Berg from the National Institutes of Health stated in a recent study, “We know with ovarian cancer that when the disease is detected in stage 1 you can have 85-90 percent 5-year survival…The question is, can you detect the cancers that are destined on to be stage 3 or unfortunately stage 4 at an early enough stage that you can intervene?” My wife went 24 years after being diagnosed with stage 4 ovarian carcinoma. It is the “science” that doesn’t work.
One of my wife’s most remarkable sayings about her cancer, “it’s 90% Faith and the Will to Live, and 10% the Science of Medicine.”
Our Comments Policy
But before leaving a comment, please review these notes about our policy.
You are responsible for any comments you leave on this site.
This site is primarily a forum for discussion about the quality (or lack thereof) in journalism or other media messages (advertising, marketing, public relations, medical journals, etc.) It is not intended to be a forum for definitive discussions about medicine or science.
We will delete comments that include personal attacks, unfounded allegations, unverified claims, product pitches, profanity or any from anyone who does not list a full name and a functioning email address. We will also end any thread of repetitive comments. We don”t give medical advice so we won”t respond to questions asking for it.
We don”t have sufficient staffing to contact each commenter who left such a message. If you have a question about why your comment was edited or removed, you can email us at feedback@healthnewsreview.org.
There has been a recent burst of attention to troubles with many comments left on science and science news/communication websites. Read “Online science comments: trolls, trash and treasure.”
The authors of the Retraction Watch comments policy urge commenters:
We”re also concerned about anonymous comments. We ask that all commenters leave their full name and provide an actual email address in case we feel we need to contact them. We may delete any comment left by someone who does not leave their name and a legitimate email address.
And, as noted, product pitches of any sort – pushing treatments, tests, products, procedures, physicians, medical centers, books, websites – are likely to be deleted. We don”t accept advertising on this site and are not going to give it away free.
The ability to leave comments expires after a certain period of time. So you may find that you’re unable to leave a comment on an article that is more than a few months old.
You might also like