Why Cancer Screening Has Never Been Shown to Save Lives

Above is the title of an article in the January 6, 2016, issue of the British Medical Journal, (BMJ). The article points to the statistics showing that screening for cancer does not seem to have an impact on overall survival rates for those who underwent screenings.

According to the researchers, most all studies looking at survival rates examine only the death rate from the cancer that the patients were screened for. Within these specific parameters, the survival rates from death from those particular cancers is improved. However, the overall survival rate from all forms of death is no better in those screened for cancer than those who are not.

The BMJ article begins by explaining, "Despite growing appreciation of the harms of cancer screening, advocates still claim that it 'saves lives.' This assertion rests, however, on reductions in disease specific mortality rather than overall mortality".

Two of the reasons cited in the study to explain why the mortality rate does not improve with screening is the possible harm from the test themselves, and over diagnosis. In some cases, abnormal cells are diagnosed and treated even though they would have never become cancerous.

In a January 7, 2016, Reuters news article on the BMJ study, lead author, Dr. Vinay Prasad of Oregon Health and Science University, stated, "It is clearly the case that some deaths unrelated to cancer are due to screening, whether from complications of procedures or treatment of cancer." He continued, "Yet because of screening, a person may undergo surgery, radiation, chemotherapy and more to treat it – all those treatments have side effects."

For many years, cancer screening has been heavily promoted by the medical profession. Dr. Prasad offered his opinion of this tactic by saying, "There used to be ads saying if a woman hadn’t had a mammogram, she needed more than her breasts examined. The fact that the medical profession promoted screening so strongly, when it was always a balancing act, when it was always a personal choice, is really shameful."

In their conclusion, the study authors wrote, "We encourage healthcare providers to be frank about the limitations of screening—the harms of screening are certain, but the benefits in overall mortality are not. Declining screening may be a reasonable and prudent choice for many people."