Hey everyone! So as I was looking at some other articles about preventive screenings, I came across this one which talked about the risks which I haven't thought about. We usually think about these screenings as being a great thing and to do them if you are at risk, at least I do, but this makes me think a little more about the potential down side of doing these tests. 

According to the American Society of Clinical Oncology, there are risks associated with the screenings. These include, "over-diagnosis; screening tests may find slow-growing cancers that would not have caused any harm during a person's lifetime. As a result, some people may receive potentially harmful, painful, stressful, and/or expensive treatments that they did not need" (ASCO). I still believe that even if you do find a slow growing cancer that you should know about it and that you have it so you know for the future if something starts to change with your health you do not need to waste time with the diagnostic testing and can start treatment right away. 

Another risk that the American Society of Clinical Oncology found was, "Increased testing. Doctors may run additional tests that a person may not need because of overdiagnosis and false positives. These tests can be physically invasive, costly, and cause unnecessary stress and worry" (ASCO). This was a big point which I did not realize because a lot of these screenings could include getting a biopsy or other invasive techniques. While theyy sometimes are necessary to rule out the diagnosis of cancer, the biopsy alone has potential risks. 

With everything considered with the risk factors, I personally believe that these tests and screenings were made to do more good than harm. These screenings, if you choose to be proactive about them, could save your life by detecting early stages of cancer when it is at a potentially treatable stage. 




American Society of Clinical Oncology. (2012). Cancer Screening. Retrieved March 04, 2016, from http://www.cancer.net/navigating-cancer-care/prevention-and-healthy-living/cancer-screening

Hey guys! So this week I found this video in which the CDC talks about cancer screenings. In my last post, I talked about the various types of screenings and this week I found a video that explained a little more about them.

One thing that I really liked in this video is that it touched upon some reasons why some people are not getting tested who are at a higher risk of getting cancer. Some of these issues that they talked about was access to doctors and having health insurance and being able to afford the screenings.

The second point that I found really interesting was that he mentioned that people usually get the screenings done if their doctors recommend it. This I think brings a whole new issue up which is the way in which providers communicate with patients and how the patients understand what is being told. You really need to be having an open line of communication with your provider so you feel comfortable talking about these issues with them, and that your provider is thoroughly going through your personal and your family health history so they are aware at what your risks are.



Centers for Disease Control. (2013, July 19). The Future of Cancer Screening: Public Health Approaches. Retrieved February 26, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCeTuXttzsQ

Hello! My name is Moira and I am a junior at Eastern Illinois University as a Health Studies major. The topic I chose to write about was preventive cancer screenings because I think this is something that everybody should be aware of how important these screenings are. 

According to the CDC, there are several screenings which are recommended. These screenings include: breast, cervical, colon, lung, ovarian, prostate and skin cancer. All of these have screenings to make it possible to test for cancer. The benefit of doing these screenings is that if they are caught early then it could potentially be curable if it's caught early. 

Some of these screenings are recommended for people who are at risk for getting cancer. For example, according the CDC "The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends yearly lung cancer screening with low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) for people who have a history of heavy smoking, and smoke now or have quit within the past 15 years, and are between 55 and 80 years old" (CDC).

I liked this article because it gave an explanation of what these specific screenings do and how they are used to detect the possibility of cancer. This was a really good place to start when trying to figure out what all the different tests are being done for.



Centers for Disease Control. (2015, September 23). Cancer Screening Tests. Retrieved February 19, 2016, from http://www.cdc.gov/cancer/dcpc/prevention/screening.htm