Research shows that Australians increasingly are being diagnosed with cancers that will do them no harm if left undetected or untreated.
Professor Paul Glasziou, Director of the Institute of Evidence-Based Healthcare at Bond University, drew on data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare to look at how the lifetime risk of five cancers had changed between 1982 and 2012.
In conjunction with co-authors Professor Alexandra Barratt and Associate Professor Katy Bell of Univeristy of Sydney, Associate Professor Mark Jones of Bond University, and Dr Thanya Pathirana of Griffith University, he calls for urgent policy changes to address overdiagnosis.
In 2012, 24 per cent of cancers of carcinomas in men were overdiagnosed, the research shows. These included 42 per cent of prostate cancers, 42 per cent of renal cancers, 73 per cent of thyroid cancers and 58 per cent of melanomas.
For women, 18 per cent of cancers or carcinomas were overdiagnosed, including 22 per cent of breast cancers, 58 per cent of renal cancers, 73 per cent of thyroid cancers and 58 per cent of melanomas.
“Cancer treatments such as surgery, radiotherapy, endocrine and chemotherapy carry risks of physical harms,” the authors reported.
The authors also stated that according to separate studies, overdiagnosis can be linked to psychological problems.
“For example, men’s risk of suicide appears to increase in the year after receiving a prostate cancer diagnosis,” they said.
Associate Professor Bell concluded: “People still need to remain vigilant when it comes to early detection of cancers. However, they need to be informed and engaged in shared decision-making with their medical professionals about the harms of cancer screening and other associated procedures.”
The researchers received funding from the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council.
