What's in a name?

If the name is "cancer," plenty. When people are told they have cancer, they ordinarily are terrified. And they and their doctors feel compelled to do something about it. Doing something about cancer normally means surgery, chemotherapy, radiation -- all extremely expensive, unpleasant, and in fact damaging to your health.It turns out, however, that since we've undertaken massive programs to screen the general population for what is generally called cancer, we've been detecting a lot of phenomena which, if untreated, would never hurt anyone. But the doctor tells the person "You have cancer," and  off we go.The National Cancer Institute convened a working group to, well, work on this problem, and a summary of their group working is posted on the JAMA web site. They'll even let you read it!They give a careful explanation of issues I have often discussed here, and I think it would be good for lots of people to read this and understand it. The mass hysterical freakout we've experienced every time the Preventive Services Task Force recommends less cancer screening is proof that people just don't get it.The key ideas are:Some abnormal cells that look like cells that sometimes become cancerous never in fact do so. In many cases, we really can't tell the difference.The importance of early detection of cancer, or what might become cancer, has been exaggerated. The American Cancer Society is as guilty of this as anyone. Yes, five year survival is higher with lesions detected by sc...
Source: Stayin' Alive - Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Source Type: blogs