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Less Risky Growths Need Less Frightening Name Than Cancer
Low-risk growths in the breast, prostate and elsewhere should no longer be named cancer and screening efforts to spot them should be cut back, a panel convened by the U.S. National Cancer Institute said.
A three decade-long emphasis on the early identification of tumors was based on the idea that cancerous cells always spread and eventually kill, the researchers wrote yesterday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Instead of sparking a drop in cancer deaths, the approach has led to the detection and toxic treatment of millions of people who may have never had any symptoms from indolent lesions.review
“The goal going forward is to personalize screening strategies, and focus screening policies on the conditions that are most likely to result in aggressive illness and death,” said Laura Esserman, director of breast care at the University of California, San Francisco’s cancer center. “By recognizing that cancer is not one disease, but a number of different diseases, we can individualize our treatment.”
Among their recommendations, the authors of yesterday’s medical journal editorial called for an independent, broad group under the auspice of an organization such as the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies to review and rename less-risky lesions and growths currently identified as cancer.