Rationale and Comments

Cancer screening is associated with short-term risks, including complications from testing, overdiagnosis, and treatment of tumors that would not have led to symptoms. For prostate cancer, 1,055 older men would need to be screened and 37 would need to be treated to avoid one death in 11 years. For breast and colorectal cancer, 1,000 older adults would need to be screened to prevent one death in 10 years. For lung cancer, much of the evidence for benefit from low dose CT screening for smokers is from healthier, younger patients younger than 65 years. Further, although screening 1,000 persons would avoid four lung cancer deaths in six years, 273 persons would have an abnormal result requiring 36 to get an invasive procedure with eight persons experiencing complications.

Sponsoring Organizations

• American Geriatrics Society

Sources

• U.S. Preventive Services Task Force

Disciplines

• Geriatric Medicine
• Oncologic
• Preventive Medicine

References

• Schröder FH, Hugosson J, Roobol MJ, Tammela TL, Ciatto S, Nelen V, Kwiatkowski M, Lujan M, Lilja H, Zappa M, Denis LJ, Recker F, Páez A, Määttänen L, Bangma CH, Aus G, Carlsson S,Villers A, Rebillard X, van der Kwast T, Kujala PM, Blijenberg BG, Stenman UH, Huber A, Taari K, Hakama M, Moss SM, de Koning HJ, Auvinen A; ERSPC Investigators.Prostate-cancer mortality at 11 years of follow-up. N Engl J Med. 2012 Mar 15;366(11):981–90.
  
• Moyer VA; U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. Screening for prostate cancer: U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendation statement. Ann Intern Med. 2012 July 17;157(2):120–34.
  
• Walter LC, Covinsky KE. Cancer screening in elderly patients: a framework for individualized decision making. JAMA. 2001 Jun 6;285(21):2750–6.
  
• Lee SJ, Boscardin WJ, Stijacic-Cenzer I, Conell-Price J, O’Brien S, Walter LC. Time lag to benefit after screening for breast and colorectal cancer: meta-analysis of survival data from the United States, Sweden, United Kingdom, and Denmark. BMJ. 2012 Jan 8;346:e8441.
  
• National Lung Screening Trial Research Team, Aberle DR, Adams AM, Berg CD, Black WC, Clapp JD, Fagerstrom RM, Gareen IF, Gatsonis C, Marcus PM, Sicks JD. Reduced lung-cancer mortality with low-dose computed tomographic screening. N Engl J Med. 2011 Aug 4;365(5):395-409.
  
• Woolf SH, Harris RP, Campos-Outcalt D. Low-dose lung computed tomography screening for lung cancer: how strong is the evidence? JAMA Intern Med. 2014;174(12):2019-22.