I suppose I should be happy that the WSJ is writing and publishing this, but it saddens me that this is “news”:
Early detection has long been seen as a powerful weapon in the battle against cancer. But some experts now see it as double-edged sword.
While it’s clear that early-stage cancers are more treatable than late-stage ones, some leading cancer experts say that zealous screening and advanced diagnostic tools are finding ever-smaller abnormalities in prostate, breast, thyroid and other tissues. Many are being labeled cancer or precancer and treated aggressively, even though they may never have caused harm.
As a result, these experts say, many people may be undergoing surgery, radiation, chemotherapy and other treatments unnecessarily, sometimes with lifelong side effects.
It’s worth reading the whole thing, but I will be very disappointed if regular readers of TIE find any of it to be surprising.
