When To Get Screened For These 5 Cancer Tumors, According To American College Of Physicians

WASHINGTON (AP) — Mammograms at 40 or 50? Every year or every other year? What's the best colon check? Screening for cancer has gotten more complicated in recent years with evolving guidelines that sometimes conflict. Now a doctors' group aims to ease some confusion — and encourage more discussion of testing's pros and cons — with what it calls advice on "high-value screening" for five types of tumors. Too often, even the doctors who order those tests aren't sure of the latest recommendations, said Dr. Wayne J. Riley, president of the American College of Physicians, which published the advice Monday in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine. "We want to make sure that folks get the right test at the right time for the right conditions," Riley said. "We also want our physician colleagues to try to avoid the customary, knee-jerk reaction to just test without having some sort of dialogue" about the right choice for each patient. So the ACP, internal medicine specialists, reviewed leading cancer screening guidelines to find the least intensive testing strategies with the broadest expert consensus. Dr. Richard Wender of the American Cancer Society said even though it disagrees on some specifics, emphasizing areas of agreement is valuable, a starting point for those doctor-patient conversations. Cancer screening is a balance to ensure the people who will benefit most get checked while not over-testing. After all, there are potential harms including false alarms that sp...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - Category: Science Source Type: news