Projection of cancer screening on metastasis: A prostate cancer case study
From the Etzioni Group, Public Health Sciences Division March 15, 2021 • By Coco Davis / Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
One of the main purposes of cancer screening is to detect localized tumors early to reduce cancer mortality. The belief or prediction that early detection will decrease the likelihood of advanced-stage cancer is called “stage shift”. Unfortunately, stage shift doesn’t consider progressive cases after diagnosis. Additionally, the diagnosis of advanced-stage cancer with screening does not always reduce disease-specific deaths. The reduction of advanced-stage cases at diagnosis will become organ-confined cases and increase the number of cases eligible for metastasis. Also, progressive cases may reduce the incidence of metastatic disease at diagnosis, resulting in the same number of metastatic cases in a screened and non-screened group.