SoylentNews

tt1515193 writes:

Cancer screening has never been shown to "save lives" as advocates claim, argue experts [medicalxpress.com] in The BMJ [wikipedia.org] today.

This assertion rests on reductions in disease specific mortality rather than overall mortality, say Vinay Prasad, Assistant Professor at Oregon Health and Science University and colleagues.

They argue that overall mortality should be the benchmark against which screening is judged and call for higher standards of evidence for cancer screening.

There are two chief reasons why cancer screening might reduce disease specific mortality without significantly reducing overall mortality, write the authors.

Firstly, studies may be underpowered to detect a small overall mortality benefit. Secondly, disease specific mortality reductions may be offset by deaths due to the downstream effects of screening.

Original Submission