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
I do feel like screening for cancer is normally a good thing, especially if you have a family history of it, but I can also see how over screening could be bad. because of the emotional and physical harm of being told you have cancer when you really do not.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post. I was not aware about preventive cancer screening. I can see why over screening could be bad it can cause an individual to be stress and over analyze the topic.
ReplyDeleteCancer screenings are extremely important. Many people in my family have died from cancer and I honestly dont believe they got cancer screenings. This is really important information. Great post.
ReplyDeleteLove this post because i have family members who have suffered from cancer and cancer screenings are so important especially if it runs in your family it is something that you should always do. Although everyone has their own personal views on it, i think it is a freat idea to make sure to get screened.
ReplyDeleteI really liked the post because I lost my aunt to cancer a few years back and this really hits home for me. I wasnt really aware of this prevention measure and im glad you informed us !
ReplyDeleteIt is crazy to think that something that is meant to help someone could harm them. I think it might be a rare occurrence, but how crazy that it could happen. This is something they could potentially fix in the future, but at this point it is not the biggest concern. Solving the cancer problem is because like everyone says everything these days seems to cause cancer. I am glad you looked into the other side of this though because not many consider this.
ReplyDelete