The best-known downside of cancer screening, such as PSA tests for
prostate cancer and mammograms for breast cancer, is that they often
flag cancers that pose no risk, leading to over-diagnosis and
unnecessary, even
harmful,
treatment. But widespread screening for "scrutiny-dependent" cancers -
those for which the harder you look the more you find, and the more of
what you find is harmless - causes another problem, two leading cancer
experts argue in a
paper published on Monday:
increasing the apparent incidence of some cancers. That in turn is
misleading doctors and the public about what increases people's risk of
developing cancers - or at least the types of cancer that matter.
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