Search Results for "overdiagnosis cancer"
News release touts universal blood test for cancer, but what about overdiagnosis?
It’s important to keep in mind that all cancer screening tests carry risks.
'Universal' blood test for earlier diagnosis of cancer moves closer to market
Podcast: Pathologic profiling – Dr. Otis Brawley on cancer overdiagnosis
Despite many advances in studying cancer, we still use a definition of cancer from the 1850s. That’s what Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society, told the recent Preventing Overdiagnosis 2015 conference at the National Institutes of Health.
3 7/29/2013Cautions on cancer screening, overdiagnosis and overtreatment
Several noteworthy articles in journals today. In JAMA, a breast cancer specialist, a prostate cancer specialist, and an esophogeal cancer specialist co-authored a Viewpoint article, “Overdiagnosis and Overtreatment in Cancer: An Opportunity for Improvement.” Excerpt: “In March 2012, the National Cancer Institute convened a meeting to evaluate the problem of “overdiagnosis,” which occurs when tumors […]
4 7/26/2010New data raising concerns over overdiagnosis & overtreatment of prostate cancer
What’s known about the characteristics of men being treated aggressively for prostate cancer? Up to now, not much. A study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine describes “the first large-scale US population-based study to document the risk profiles and treatment patterns among men with PSA levels of 4.0 ng/mL or lower who were diagnosed […]
2 4/23/2010Overdiagnosis in cancer & role of shared decision-making
Gil Welch and Bill Black of Dartmouth address cancer overdiagnosis in a new review article in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Excerpt from the abstract: “We estimated the magnitude of overdiagnosis from randomized trials: about 25% of mammographically detected breast cancers, 50% of chest x-ray and/or sputum-detected lung cancers, and 60% of prostate-specific […]
Theranos redux? Not really. But claim of a ‘simple’ test for breast cancer warrants scrutiny
Once again the lure of a “simple” test has made headlines. This time the catalyst was a news release issued by the UK’s National Cancer Research Institute. Its title: “Simple blood test for early detection of breast cancer.” In fact, no such test exists. As the body of the PR news release acknowledged, it’s an […]
How overdiagnosis and other harms can undermine the benefits of screening: A new primer in our toolkit
September marks National Prostate Health Month, when hospitals and urology practices push free prostate cancer screening. It’s also when we at HealthNewsReview.org publish our annual analysis of why these promotions — and their “screening saves lives” message — are bad for men. To help readers understand the issue more clearly, we’ve published an expanded toolkit […]
Screening: How overdiagnosis and other harms can undermine the benefits
“Screening saves lives.” We’ve all seen that seductive message. The idea behind screening — catching disease early when it’s easiest to treat — sounds good, but it can be misleading. Screening means testing people who don’t have signs or symptoms of the disease. It might save some people from a fate such as dying of […]
Here’s one detail that should be included in almost all stories about cancer screening studies
This is an oversight we see often in news stories reporting on research about new cancer screening tests.
NEW PROSTATE CANCER DNA SPIT TEST DEVELOPED BY SCIENTISTS
Questions about a ‘simple blood test’ to screen for cancer prompt revealing answer: It’s complicated
We often tell our readers to run for the hills whenever they see a news story touting a “simple blood test.” You won’t find a better example of why you need to be wary than an exchange between a reporter and a researcher at a news conference at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual […]
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A win for readers: coverage of new prostate cancer screening guidelines focuses on shared decision making
When the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) issued a statement recommending against prostate cancer screening in 2012, its guidance was met with often vituperative attacks from professional organizations and advocacy groups. The muted response to new recommendations released this past Tuesday supporting personalized decision making for men 55 to 69 must have come as […]
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Despite screaming headlines, England’s breast cancer screening computer glitch didn’t kill anyone
A bureaucratic snafu in England has generated international headlines bemoaning the deaths of hundreds of women. Some coverage, such as this CNN story picked up by KSAT in San Antonio, brought visions of a mass casualty event on the scale of a terrorist attack or airline crash: Dozens of other news outlets chimed in with similarly […]
Could finding more cancer lead us to understand risk factors less?
An opinion piece in last week’s Annals of Internal Medicine argues that just how aggressively we screen for some cancers can actually distort our understanding of the risk factors for a particular cancer, as well as how common we perceive it to be. The authors describe ‘scrutiny-dependent’ cancers — those subtypes of cancers often picked […]
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A prostate ‘Pep Talk’ is the wrong way to get men thinking about cancer screening
With September’s Prostate Cancer Awareness Month in full swing, an industry-affiliated partnership has turned to high-profile former NFL coaches to deliver its prostate cancer screening message. It’s a clever choice: professional coaches are good at getting men to do all kinds of things they might not otherwise want to do, whether it’s extra wind sprints […]
NBC News doesn’t back away from shortcomings of new blood test for early cancer detection
It outlines some of the potential risks as well as the benefits of the proposed test, and adequately explains that it is not yet ready for prime time.
