Cancer Is Inaccurate

As life on Earth continues to grow, so do diseases. One disease, cancer, has been around for quite awhile, and is the cause of multiple deaths. Cancer, a disease stemmed from a division of abnormal cells, can be found using different methods. One option is screening, which is often overdone. Cancer screenings should be implemented less frequently than currently advised because they can lead to inaccurate results, worse situations, and unnecessary treatment.

One of the many downfalls of screening for cancer is that the results are not always accurate. Not all cancers will be found. In a mammography, at least twenty percent of cancerous tumors are missed, and during prostate cancer screenings, at least half of all cancerous tumors do not

With an inaccurate diagnosis, comes the emotional and physical toll of treatments, as well as the cost. When diagnosed with cancer or even awaiting the results of a cancer test, one can develop anxiety (Brawley). Doctor Welch, a professor at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, teaches his students how “screening leads to a lot of anxiety.” Along with the emotional toll that follows the diagnosis of cancer comes the physical aspect. Treating tumors that would have not become life-threatening has some pretty big risks: pain, infections, anesthesia reactions, or complications (McCullough). Along with those risks, one may lose a part of their body or a function. Because of all the treatments on nonfatal cancers, women may lose a breast while men can lose their sexual function (Aschwanden). But above all that, treatments and “diagnostic interventions can even cause an early death” (Brawley). One of the biggest worries people have when diagnosed with cancer, is how will the treatments be paid for. With the cost of cancer treatment in the United States set to grow thirty-nine percent from 2010-2020, billions of dollars could be spent on something that might not have even required treatment (Aschwanden). For any family or individual person, paying for cancer treatment can cause a financial fallout. The “treatment of an overdiagnosed tumor cannot provide benefit, but it can lead to harm” (McCullough).

Surgery, however, has its downfalls, just like chemotherapy and radiation. A woman could lose a breast or her sexual function. Men, as well, could also lose their sexual function (Aschwanden). Missy, at the time a thirty-eight year old woman, found herself having to deal with the results of surgery to remove cancer. When diagnosed with breast cancer, Missy then had a mastectomy. Her doctors had recommended six months of chemotherapy and the antiestrogen drug Tamoxifen. Her side effects would have then included menopause-like symptoms, an increased risk for uterine cancer, hair loss, infections, vomiting and nausea as well as anger and anxiety. After her surgery, Missy states that she “was as mad as a hornet [and] resented the fact that at thirty-eight, [she] had lost a breast and went into early menopause” (qtd in Sanders). Cancer is not a subject to be taken lightly and neither is the process of treatment. Serious side effects can arise. While in some cases screenings can save lives, in others it can lead to an early