Course Details
9420: Screening for Cancer: More Harm Than Good? It Ain't So Simple!
February 9-11
11:45 AM -
1:15 PM
In-Person
Cancer screening searches for hidden disease, to "catch it early." Is this always beneficial? Screening is not that simple. Detecting cancer early can also lead to overdiagnosis and overtreatment, resulting in significant physical and emotional harm. We will discuss the fundamentals of cancer screening and explore the perils inherent in this trade-off. We will also consider the impacts of new screening tests that detect cancer DNA in blood samples ("liquid biopsy"). The class will largely be interactive.
Class Type: Discussion
Class Format: In-Person
Hours of Reading: Less than 1 hour/session
Study Group Leader(s):
Mark ZweigMark Zweig, MD, is a physician/scientist, board certified in Clinical Pathology, and spent his career at the National Institutes of Health, with a focus on medical testing, particularly test accuracy, efficacy, and clinical usefulness. He was Deputy Chief of the Clinical Chemistry Service of the Department of Laboratory Medicine in the NIH hospital for 19 years. He has been especially interested in cancer screening since 2000, and a Study Group Leader at OLLI since 2008.