To Counter Misdiagnosis, Experts Recommend Renaming Early-Stage Cancers

By Vera Viner

While contracting cancer can be a terrifying disease to combat in one’s lifetime, today’s healthcare industry has become much better at identifying problems in the human body before it has become life-threatening or spread to other organs. With early diagnosis and treatment at higher levels, it may become necessary for medical experts to consider re-naming small abnormalities and avoid phrases like “early-stage cancer” if a small tumor has little chance of developing into a serious cancer.

FierceHealthcare reported on a study group that suggested changing the terms early-stage cancers to merely lesions that have a “reasonable likelihood of lethal progression if left untreated.” Additionally, it is advised for the medical industry to build registries for lesions that have little potential for becoming malignant tumors.

Because of the problems associated with over-diagnosis and misdiagnosis, the researchers suggested to increase the threshold that requires biopsies, reduce the frequency of certain screenings, and focus screening more on high-risk populations. These suggestions may counter the problems associated with false-positives from mammography and other breast cancer screenings.

The researchers published their findings via The Journal of the American Medical Association. The authors of the study explain that, while cancer awareness campaigns and screenings have brought a significant rise in early-stage disease, a decline in late-stage disease has not been met.

While cancer may lead to metastasis and death, there are some forms that remain harmless throughout a person’s lifetime. The researchers urge the medical community to aim toward treating cancers that are life-threatening and determine the differences between those that are metastatic and more likely to remain benign.

“Screening for breast cancer and prostate cancer appears to detect more cancers that are potentially clinically insignificant,” the authors wrote in their report. “Lung cancer may follow this pattern if high-risk screening is adopted. Barrett esophagus and ductal carcinoma of the breast are examples for which the detection and removal of lesions considered precancerous have not led to lower incidence of invasive cancer. In contrast, colon and cervical cancer are examples of effective screening programs in which early detection and removal of precancerous lesions have reduced incidence as well as late-stage disease. Thyroid cancers and melanoma are examples for which screening has expanded and, along with it, the detection of indolent disease.”

Another important healthcare model that the cancer community can rejoice in is the development of pioneer Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs). Anotherpost from FierceHealthcare explains the benefits that ACOs have provided in the last year:

1) Pioneer ACOs have succeeded in enhancing cancer screenings as well as blood pressure and cholesterol control for diabetes patients

2) The majority of the first ACOs have been able to lower patient readmission rates

3) One-third of the ACOs were able to reduce healthcare costs, which saved Medicare $33 million including a cumulative savings of $87 million

Today, it is a time to look on the bright side of many issues related to our medical system. With accountable care organizations and the movement toward improved cancer screening methods as well as immune-based treatments, cancer patients are in a much better position than they were even a decade ago.