NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Although the benefits of cancer screening in elderly people are often less certain than the risks, many silver-haired Americans are still getting the routine tests, researchers said Monday.
More than half of women ages 75 to 79 in a nationwide survey said they were being screened for breast cancer and had had recent Pap smears to look for signs of cervical cancer.
Similarly, most men in that age group had been screened for prostate cancer recently. The numbers dropped some for people over 80, but were still high.
That’s despite the fact that there is still substantial uncertainty over the potential benefits of screening tests in the elderly.
“Historically older adults have been excluded from screening trials, so the screening efficacy data in this population are really limited,” said Keith M. Bellizzi, a public health researcher at the University of Connecticut, who lead the new work.
While some screening tests — say, mammography or colonoscopy — have been shown to save lives in middle-aged adults, all have downsides.
There is the cost of looking for disease in people who feel fine, for instance, and the potential complications of procedures such as colonoscopies. The tests may also sound a false alarm that
Read More from the Article Source: Full Article
