Each year, seven billion people die from a tumorous disease that invades normal body functions. This disease is the worlds leading cause of death resulting in thirteen percent of deaths worldwide (“Cancer”). What kind of disease is capable of causing so much devastation? That disease goes by the name of cancer. Cancer comes in many different forms like: breast, lung, prostate, skin, and leukemia. Cancer gets harder to cure the later it is found so the sooner it is found, the better. Most common people believe that one way to prevent cancer is by getting screenings early. Getting these screenings is a beneficial way to stay on track with one’s health, but only in moderation. Receiving an excessive amount of cancer screenings can indeed be harmful and it is actually recommended not to overdo screening. Cancer screenings can be detrimental if taken too frequently because they are expensive, unreliable, and in some cases, harmful.
First of all, cancer screenings are expensive, and the more screening a person gets; the more the bills pile up. Everything costs money, and something like personal health is something that anyone would pay large amounts of money for. Why are these screenings so expensive? People believe that receiving screenings will help them prevent cancer(which is untrue), but doctors have started to realize that people would pay anything to keep themselves “healthy”. This gives doctors the option to make these screenings much more expensive (Jameson). Also, the fact that people are uninformed about different screenings makes getting them expensive. A commonly heard screening for colon cancer is known as a colonoscopy. On the bright side, this test detects if cancerous cells are in the colon, but the negative is that ...
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...All in all, cancer screenings are like cookies. They appear good and tempting to have, yet too much of a good thing...isn’t always good.
Works Cited
Brawley, Otis. "The Benefits and Harms of Cancer Screening." NCI Cancer Bulletin. 27
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“Cancer.” Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection. Detroit: Gale, 2012. Opposing
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Jameson, Marni. "Are Cancer Screenings Overdone?." Orlando Sentinel. 30 May. 2013:
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LeWinne, Howard. "Doctors Often Don’t Reveal Cancer Test Overtreatment and Harms."
Harvard Health Publications. N.p., 22 Oct. 2013. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
Rabin, Roni C. "Why People Aren’t Screened for Colon Cancer." Well Why People Arent
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Cancer is one of the 9 National Health Priority Areas (NHPA), areas which account for a significant portion of the burden of disease, but have sizeable potential for improvement. In Australia, CRC is the second most common cancer, after prostate (in men) and breast cancer (in women) (AIHW, Cancer incidence projections). The incidence has gradually increased (by 13% in males from 1982-2007) (AIHW, Cancer in Australia an overview). This is compounded by the ageing population and population growth, with 14,860 new cases in 2010 (http://www.cancer.org.au/about-cancer/types-of-cancer/bowel-cancer). This graph demonstrates this upward trend ((AIHW, Cancer incidence projections):
As the author highlighted in this book, the quickest way to be diagnosed for prostate cancer is to be screened for it; the same notion applies for many other diseases and illness. With the advent of the technological age, doctors are now able to see more than they did before, and therefore, are more quick to diagnose illnesses and cancers early. As Welch explains, the problem with that is that not all illness or cancers will kill you; some cancers will stick around, but never cause any harm. So, this leads to screening for cancers that were never going to kill a patient, that end up being detected early on and dealt with, thus giving credit to early screening as a success story. As Welch explains, most illnesses and injuries that undertake a natural course of events, without medical intervention, usually heal on their own. This is problematic because it creates this idea that medical intervention is helpful and necessary, when that is not always the case. In general, as a society, the benefits of medical care have been over-exaggerated, while the harms of medical care have been largely ignored. If Welchs’ instructions were followed, a closer examination of the effect of screenings and tests would be the new medical
The Information gathered in 2012 from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention studies concluded that cervical cancer, “... used to be the leading cause of cancer death for women in the United States” (“Cervical Cancer Statistics”). But these statistics have gone down significantly in the past forty years because Planned Parenthood facilities provide to women pap smears to detect cell changes before the cancer develops. On the other hand, Planned Parenthood does not directly provide mammograms for women, their doctors and nurses “... teach patients about breast care, [and] connect patients to resources to help them get mammograms” ("Breast Cancer Screenings"). The important health care work done by the Planned Parenthood Clinics is, at times, over sought and even forgotten when the organization is embroiled in controversy as it finds itself in
According to the National Cancer Institute, cancer health disparities are defined as the adverse differences between specific populations and the achievement of an optimal state of health. These population groups are categorized by geographic location, income, disability, age, education, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, or race. These factors correlate with cancer mortality rates that impact specific population groups in the United States, cancer prevalence is the number of people diagnosed or living with cancer, and cancer incidence which is the number of new cancer cases in a population. According to the American Cancer Society, in 2013, there were an estimated 1,660,290 new cases of cancer and 580,350 of the new cases resulted in mortality. Individuals who have limited access to healthcare, health illiterate, and poverty stricken are more likely to develop cancer. This means a person’s socioeconomic status can determine the likelihood of their probability of developing cancer
Many things in our genes, lifestyle, and the environment may increase our risk of getting cancer. To reduce our chances to develop cancer, we may change our diet and lifestyle, also, if the cancerous cells are found earlier, and medicines to treat precancerous cells may keep cancer from starting. Some types of cancer can be found before they cause symptoms. By having screenings, doctors can find and treat cancer early. Screening examinations are applied to...
Lung cancer screening tests are recommended only for adults who have no symptoms but may be at high risk for developing lung cancer. There are three things you should ask yourself before being screened for lung cancer, have you smoked in the past 15 years? Were, or are you a heavy smoker? Are you 55-80 years old? There are three risks of doing screening tests. One is that it can be said that someone has lung cancer, when no cancer is present, which may lead to unnecessary tests, and surgeries. This is called false-positive res...
Pyenson, B. S., Sander, M. S., Jiang, Y., Kahn, H., & Mulshine, J. L. (2012). An actuarial analysis shows that offering lung cancer screening as an insurance benefit would save lives at relatively low cost. Health Affairs, 31(4), 770-9. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1009893765?accountid=89121.
Cancer is a major public health problem in many parts of the world. Over ten million new cases of cancer, with over six million deaths were estimated in the year 2000 (Parkin, 2001). The estimated numbers of incidence and mortality in 2002 were markedly increased as 10.9 million new cases, 6.7 million deaths with cancer (Parkin et al., 2005). Even developed countries suffering from cancer, in USA it was expected 2677860 new cases of cancer will be diagnosed in 2009. In that same year , more than 562,340 deaths will occur due to cancer, this number represent 25 % of all deaths and makes cancer as a second leading cause of death after heart diseases (Jemal et al.
For many years, women were advised to get Pap smears every year. A Pap smear is a screening test for cervical cancer using a speculum to see the patient’s cervix. The doctor swabs your cervix with a brush to collect cells and send them off for analysis. According to new guidelines from the American Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology (ASCCP) cervical screening every three years extends life at a cost of about $5,392 per life saved (Center for Disease and Control, 2008). In addition, it ensures women receive the benefits of testing while minimizing the risks. The new guidelines state women between the ages of 21 and 29 are encouraged to get Pap smears every three years, while those between the ages of 30 – 64 are encouraged to get
For years people have tried to figure out one big question. What is the real cause of cancer? After much research, the statistics say that cancer is a disease of the modern world (Stevenson 1). A few main factors that cause cancer are the use of tobacco, industrial agents, and a person’s weight and diet. (Landau 2-4). The modern environment and everyday lifestyle of people contain factors that cause cancer.
The cost of doctors and cancer treatments come at no cheap price, medical bills can began to build up into the thousands of dollars before you can even blink. In fact “Bankruptcies resulting from unpaid medical bills will affect nearly 2 million people this year—making health care the No. 1 cause of such filings, and outpacing bankruptcies due to credit-card bills or unpaid mortgages, according to new data. And even having health insurance doesn 't buffer consumers against financial hardship.(Dan Magen)”. This shows that even after people have won the battle against cancer there will still be lots of pain that will affect them and their families. Not only have these same people not been able to work for long periods of time but many are permanently scared either mentally or physically. No one who is diagnosed with cancer comes out of the fight unharmed, many become handy cap both physically and mentally, requiring to relearn how to complete even the most trivial tasks. However many cancer patients have to pay the ultimate price, death. If cancer isn’t caught or treated soon enough the patient will die, causing emotional scaring on all of their family and friends. Sometimes young children will wonder why their mom or dad died, causing a huge impact on the lives of thousands of children. Some parents may even have to
“Cancer affects all of us, whether you’re a daughter, mother, sister, friend, coworker, doctor, or patient” (Aniston). Cancer treatment is a very sore subject, but many people are diagnosed with this disease. However, doctors have ways of finding cancer and treating it. Cancer is a very serious issue that needs to be dealt with in each person who is diagnosed with it. To understand the solution, one has to know the causes, effects, and problems of cancer.
Trevena L. (2009) Cancer screening Reprinted from Australian Family Physician: School of Public Health, University of Sydney, New South Wales. Vol. 38, No. 4
... screening because within the chest x-ray they are able to detect the smallest tumor, that a CT screening cannot detect. The CT screening is used to detect the early stage of cancer, but at times it may not detect the tumor. Also the results from the testing may show false results of having a negative or positive sign. If the result turns out to be false negative for the screening, the tumor may end up growing, by the time they have another test done, it may be too late to cure the cancer. If the results turn out to be a positive, the amount of money that they have to invest for other tests and treatments end up being worth a lot of money. Some insurance companies do not cover these costs for the tests or for the treatments. You got to pay from your pockets to get these done. So it puts the individual into a lot of pressure and also has them go through a lot stress.
A health appraisal or health risk assessment is a method of gathering and analyzing an individual's physical health. By comparing one's result to that of a standard age group, health care providers are able to predict future health problems as well as informing the patient of alternative and healthier lifestyles. It is important for an individual to know their health status compared to those around them. That way, one is able to participate in physical activities that will improve their overall well-being.