National Cancer Institute May Soften Up Cancer Definition

There are now a group of experts who feel that the current cancer screening tests are too suggestive. Their proposal to the National Cancer Institute is that the word cancer be removed from the conversation with patients after performing some cancer screening procedures. The proposal is a result of the experts’ opinions that many cancer procedures performed are unnecessary and cause undue stress on the patients. The mention of the word cancer to the patient causes the patient to expect treatment and possible death.

“We need a 21st-century definition of cancer instead of a 19th-century definition of cancer, which is what we’ve been using,”

Procedures performed after hundreds of thousands of routine screening tests result in disfiguring and needless suffering. A change in the definition of what is considered cancer is the proposal.

“While the policy change, announced on Monday but not yet made final, has the potential to save 20,000 lives a year, some doctors warned about the cumulative radiation risk of repeat scans as well as worries that broader use of the scans will lead to more risky and invasive medical procedures.”

This comes at the same time a federal panel is suggesting that all smokers and ex-smokers get annual CT scans to detect cancer. This would affect millions of patients.

Cancer is the 2^nd leading cause of death in the US, and decisions made by the National Cancer Institute can have a profound impact on the health of the US population. Below is a list of the leading causes of death in the US during 2010, when the official CDC data is merged with data from the book: Death By Medicine released in October of 2012.

Rank	Leading Causes of Death in the US in 2010	Deaths	Source
1	Heart disease	597,689	CDC
2	Cancer	574,743	CDC
3	Outpatients	199,000	Starfield(12), Weingart(112)
4	Chronic lower respiratory diseases	138,080	CDC
5	Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases)	129,476	CDC
6	Accidents (unintentional injuries)	120,859	CDC
7	Bedsores	115,000	Xakellis(7), Barczak (8)
8	Malnutrition	108,800	Nurses Coalition(11)
9	Adverse Drug Reactions	106,000	Lazarou(1), Suh (49)
10	Medical error	98,000	IOM(6)
11	Infection	88,000	Weinstein(9), MMWR (10)
12	Alzheimer’s disease	83,494	CDC
13	Diabetes	69,071	CDC
14	Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis	50,476	CDC
15	Influenza and Pneumonia	50,097	CDC
16	Intentional self-harm (suicide)	38,364	CDC
17	Unnecessary Procedures	37,136	HCUP(3,13)
18	Surgery-Related	32,000	AHRQ(85)