We have cancer over-awareness? That?s what UNC docs say

New medical research suggests that annual cancer screenings cause more harm than good.

Despite decades of medical research that suggest annual cancer screenings are good personal health practice, new evidence shows that Americans go for cancer screenings too often.

In fact, Drs. Russell Harris and Stacey Sheridan of the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at UNC-Chapel Hill say the practice of annual cervical-cancer screenings may now cause more harm than good.

?We probably have cancer over-awareness now,? says Harris, considered one of the leading experts in the area of cancer screenings.

He and Sheridan published an editorial on the UNC-CH website that has already received attention from the medical news media, and it?s a topic that has garnered some mainstream media attention as well.

Although the editorial speaks specifically to cervical-cancer screenings, Harris says ?there is a larger story, and that?s what our editorial is really about.?

Just this week, RTI International published research that shows men will overwhelmingly still go for prostate-cancer screenings, despite medical advice against the practice.

Screenings for other cancers, including breast cancer, are also in the crosshairs of new medical thinking, but changing public perception could prove easier said than done.

?Everyone has trouble changing on a dime,? Harris says, pointing out that there are accepted social norms around screenings, making it difficult to adjust broadly accepted practice. ?But I think those things are going to change. The more we talk about those issues, the more people will begin to understand.?

Jason deBruyn covers Health Care, Higher Education, Nonprofits and Sports Business. Follow him on Twitter @jasondebruyn.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/vertical_35/~3/2iQJrEfM-jw/we-have-cancer-over-awareness-thats.html

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