With greater number of screening tests comes larger chance for cancer scare
Patient Safety Monitor Alert
October 3, 2007
Although early detection has saved countless numbers of lives of cancer patients, it has also increased stress and in some cases unnecessary surgery and procedures for some patients who showed warning signs for cancer but in the end were cancer free. The Boston Globe reported that 5% to 15% of the time screens for breast cancer, cervix cancer, colon cancer, and cancer of other organs produce a false positive. This translates to 20 million cancer scares.To read the full article click here.
