BBC Radio’s More or Less – Could screening for breast cancer from the age of 40 save lives? – Alex Barratt
Prof Alex Barratt responds to the claim that screening women in their 40s for breast cancer saves lives
ABC Radio’s ‘Life Matters’ – Too many tests by doctors and going bush to switch off
Listeners and experts discuss on the downsides of medical professionals sending patients off for unnecessary tests and investigations, and what happens when you go bush to unplug from life's complications.
SMH/The Age – New study claims some cancers ‘better left undiscovered’
A controversial new study claims about one in every five cancers diagnosed in Australia would have been better left undiscovered. The study, published in the Medical Journal of Australia on Monday, argues more than half of melanomas, 22 per cent of breast cancers and 42 [...]
Women’s Acceptance of Overdetection in Breast Cancer Screening: Can We Assess Harm-Benefit Tradeoffs? – Anne Stiggelbout et al.
Breast cancer screening has been presented to women as mostly positive for decades, despite voices raising issues related to harms since its introduction. Public communications about breast cancer screening tended to use persuasive techniques aimed at maximizing uptake. Concern about the harm of overdetection is [...]
Sunrise: Thousands of Australians undergo chemo after being “overdiagnosed” with cancer each year
Prof Paul Glasziou speaks on Channel 7's Sunrise program about overdiagnosis in cancer following the release of his MJA paper estimating the magnitude of cancer overdiagnosis in Australia
Estimating the magnitude of cancer overdiagnosis in Australia – Paul Glasziou et al.
We estimated that overdiagnosis accounted for about 18% of cancer diagnoses in women in Australia during 2012, and about 24% of diagnoses in men. That is, about 11 000 cancers in women and 18 000 in men may be overdiagnosed each year. Although proportional rates of overdiagnosis [...]
Women’s Acceptance of Overdetection in Breast Cancer Screening: Can We Assess Harm-Benefit Tradeoffs? – Anne Stiggelbout et al.
For decades, breast cancer screening has been viewed in a mostly positive light, despite voices from the beginning raising issues related to its harms. Public communications about breast cancer screening have tended to use persuasive techniques aimed at maximizing uptake. False positives were considered the [...]
Examining the information needed for acceptance of deintensified screening programmes: qualitative focus groups about cervical screening in Australia – Rachael Dodd et al.
What do women want to know about for them to feel ok about the changes to the cervical screening program? From six focus groups that we ran across Sydney with women aged 25-74, we found three key concepts that were a) important for women to [...]
AFR – What happens to men who say ‘no’ to prostate cancer treatment
When men say “no” to treatment for prostate cancer, they don’t walk away feeling unburdened and free of concern. They’ve made a difficult decision and, as the diagnosis stays with them, they live with complex consequences.
Resisting recommended treatment for prostate cancer: a qualitative analysis of the lived experience of possible overdiagnosis – Kirsten McCaffery et al.
Men who choose not to have recommended treatment for prostate cancer may avoid treatment-associated harms like incontinence and impotence, however our findings showed that the impact of the diagnosis itself is immense and far-reaching. A high priority for improving clinical practice is to ensure men [...]