Getting tested to detect cancer early is one of the best ways to stay healthy - or is it? In this lively, carefully researched book, a nationally recognized expert on early cancer detection challenges one of medicine's most widely accepted beliefs: that the best defense against cancer is to always try to catch it early. Read this book and you will think twice about common cancer screening tests such as total body scans, mammograms, and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) tests. Combining patient stories and solid data on common ...
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Getting tested to detect cancer early is one of the best ways to stay healthy - or is it? In this lively, carefully researched book, a nationally recognized expert on early cancer detection challenges one of medicine's most widely accepted beliefs: that the best defense against cancer is to always try to catch it early. Read this book and you will think twice about common cancer screening tests such as total body scans, mammograms, and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) tests. Combining patient stories and solid data on common cancers, Dr. H. Gilbert Welch makes the case that testing healthy people for cancer is really a double-edged sword: while these tests may help, they often have surprisingly little effect and are sometimes even harmful. Bringing together a body of little-known medical research in an engaging and accessible style, he discusses in detail the pitfalls of screening tests, showing how they can miss some cancers, how they can lead to invasive, unnecessary treatments, and how they can distract doctors from other important issues. Welch's conclusions are powerful, counterintuitive, and disturbing: the early detection of cancer does not always save lives, it can be hard to know who really has early cancer, and there are some cancers better left undiscovered. "Should I Be Tested for Cancer?" is the only book to clearly and simply lay out the pros and cons of cancer testing for the general public. It is indispensable reading for the millions of Americans who repeatedly face screening tests and who want to make better-informed decisions about their own health care.
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Add this copy of Should I Be Tested for Cancer? : Maybe Not and Here's to cart. $3.69, very good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Atlanta rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Austell, GA, UNITED STATES, published 2004 by University of California Press.
Add this copy of Should I Be Tested for Cancer? : Maybe Not and Here's to cart. $3.69, very good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Reno rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Reno, NV, UNITED STATES, published 2004 by University of California Press.
Add this copy of Should I Be Tested for Cancer? : Maybe Not and Here? S to cart. $31.31, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Hialeah, FL, UNITED STATES, published 2004 by University of California Press.
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Add this copy of Should I Be Tested for Cancer? : Maybe Not and Here's to cart. $73.96, new condition, Sold by GridFreed rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from North Las Vegas, NV, UNITED STATES, published 2004 by University of California Press.
This is a book whose moment has come. Everyone who is concerned about the suggested new guidelines for mammograms should read it. Published in 2004 and written for the general public, it discusses how guidelines for cancer screening tests are arrived at and what screening can and can't do. Intuitively we all believe that catching cancer as early as possible must be beneficial, but it turns out that there are problems with this approach.
"False-positive" results, calling for repeated tests or biopsies, cause many people considerable stress and anxiety. The more frequently one has the screening test, the higher the chance of having a false-positive result.
Some tiny cancers will be dealt with by the body's immune system and never develop. Others will grow so slowly that they would not cause a problem in the person's lifetime. Treating them all aggressively may do more harm than good.
Most of us think a cancer diagnosis is straightforward: if one has a biopsy, we think, there will be a clear yes or no answer. I was amazed to discover from the book that while in many biopsies there is no disagreement whether the tissue samples do or do not contain cancer, in others highly experienced pathologists will characterize them differently.
I very warmly recommend this book. I wish I had read it a year ago, when I was going through a prolonged and confusing period of testing and a biopsy, but even after the fact it has greatly reduced my anxiety and given me a much better grasp of what cancer is and how to approach dealing with it.
johnnyjumpup
Aug 16, 2007
Useful overall
This book asks a lot of useful questions, and points out the problems with cancer testing that most doctors or clinics will not mention. I give it 4 stars, as I feel some issues were not covered, like the danger of radiation from mammograms. The distinction between absolute risk and relative risk is essential to question regarding both tests and treatments.
