Overdiagnosis Articles

Increasing life expectancy means growing numbers of elderly survive the critical age for cardiac and vascular diseases only to later experience cancer and dementia.

Of the types of cancer affecting men, prostate cancer continues to be diagnosed early by prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening.

The purpose of this study was to examine overdiagnosis and overtreatment related to cancer screening and to review relevant reports and studies. A comprehensive search of peer-reviewed and gray literature was conducted for relevant studies published between January 2000 and December 2015 reporting breast, prostate, and thyroid cancer screening tests and overdiagnosis.

Prostate cancer, the second most frequently diagnosed cancer in males worldwide, is estimated to be diagnosed in 1.1 million men per year. Introduction of PSA testing substantially improved early detection of prostate cancer, however it also led to overdiagnosis and subsequent overtreatment of patients with an indolent disease.

Many cancers offer an extended window of opportunity for early detection and therapeutic intervention that could lead to a reduction in cause-specific mortality. The pursuit of early detection in screening settings has resulted in decreased incidence and mortality for some cancers (eg, colon and cervical cancers), and increased incidence with only modest or no effect on cause-specific mortality in others (eg, breast and prostate).

Despite disparities in prostate cancer incidence and mortality rates between black and white men, there is still insufficient data available to assess potential differences in the benefits and harms of prostate cancer screening by race.

To estimate changes in the stage distribution of prostate cancer during the time period where opportunistic PSA-testing was introduced.

Cancer stage, age and year of diagnosis were obtained for all men over the age of 50 diagnosed with prostate cancer in Norway during the period 1980-2010.