Category Archives: screening

Let’s have some balance in breast cancer screening discussions

November 19, 2009 – 10:24 am

Reaction to the recent study suggesting breast cancer screening leads to significant over-diagnosis and unnecessary treatment has been, as you might expect, quite mixed.
Some of the most critical comments have come from breast cancer consumer advocates – overtones, perhaps, of how prostate cancer consumer groups have sometimes reacted to evidence about the potential harms of [...]

By Croakey | Also posted in Media-related issues, cancer, consumer health information | Comments (0)

Breast cancer screening gets an indepth examination

November 13, 2009 – 12:18 pm

The study investigating over-diagnosis in breast cancer screening, as previously described at Croakey, is attracting widespread interest and discussion.
Andrew Penman, Chief Executive Officer of Cancer Council NSW, has been considering the complexities of the issues involved, and writes:

By Croakey | Also posted in cancer, consumer health information | Tagged , , | Comments (1)

How should we respond to the new breast cancer screening study?

November 12, 2009 – 2:59 pm

What are the implications of the breast cancer study reported below by Associate Professor Alex Barratt?
Croakey has asked a range of individuals and groups to respond, and will post their comments as they land.

By Croakey | Also posted in cancer, consumer health information | Tagged , , , | Comments (2)

Breast cancer screening can lead to unnecessary treatment

November 12, 2009 – 12:23 pm

Croakey is old enough to remember the days when anyone who raised questions about the potential for mammographic screening for breast cancer to have a downside was treated with all the derision and scorn usually reserved for dangerous heretics.
Thankfully, the debate has matured quite a bit since those days.  We are now hearing a somewhat [...]

By Croakey | Also posted in cancer, health and medical research | Tagged , , , | Comments (5)

Has cancer screening been oversold? Cancer Council responds

October 22, 2009 – 6:56 pm

The New York Times, as previously mentioned, is reporting a shift in screening policy at the the American Cancer Society, which is now saying that the benefits of early detection of  many cancers, especially breast and prostate, have been “overstated”.
“We don’t want people to panic,” Dr Otis Brawley, the Society’s chief medical officer told the [...]

By Croakey | Also posted in Media-related issues, cancer, consumer health information | Tagged , , | Comments (2)

A cancer story that will set the cat among the pigeons

October 21, 2009 – 7:37 pm

Gina Kolata has just published a story in the New York Times that is going to create international waves which will be felt for some time.
She reports that the American Cancer Society – a longtime advocate for most cancer screening – “is now saying that the benefits of detecting many cancers, especially breast and prostate, [...]

By Croakey | Also posted in cancer, public health | Tagged , | Comments (5)

A message for the Feds on bowel cancer screening…

October 7, 2009 – 8:24 am

Further to the recent Croakey posts on a new study evaluating the initial impact of bowel cancer screening, one of the study’s authors has sent in her take on the results.
Dr Sumitra Ananda, a cancer specialist in Melbourne, is hoping the Federal Government acts on the new findings.
She writes:

“The recent report in the MJA [...]

By Croakey | Also posted in Health inequalities, Journal articles, cancer, consumer health information | Comments (0)