Young people's perspectives of thyroid cancer screening and its harms after the nuclear accident in Fukushima Prefecture: a questionnaire survey indicating opt-out screening strategy of the thyroid examination as an ethical issue.

BACKGROUND: Overdiagnosis of thyroid cancer has become a major global medical issue. Ultrasound-based thyroid cancer screening has promoted overdiagnosis, and recently international recommendations state that it should not be conducted, even after a nuclear accident. The Fukushima thyroid cancer screening program was initiated in 2011 as a health policy after the nuclear accident. The risk of radiation-induced thyroid cancer was unlikely given the low radiation levels, but the thyroid cancer screening program has continued at 2-year intervals with a relatively high participation rate and is now in its fifth round. It is therefore crucial to clarify whether those targeted for screening understand the disadvantages of screening, and to identify factors that influenced their decision to participate. METHODS: We conducted an anonymous mail-based questionnaire among young people from Fukushima Prefecture (subjects) and a neighboring prefecture that was not targeted for screening (non-subjects). We asked them about the significance of the thyroid cancer screening in Fukushima Prefecture, their reasons for accepting or refusing screening, their perception of the harms of screening, and their opinions on thyroid examination at school. We compared the results of the questionnaire between subjects and non-subjects and between examinees (who were screened) and non-examinees (who declined screening). RESULTS: Only 16.5% of respondents were aware of the harms associated with thyroid cancer screening, with most perceiving that the benefits outweighed the harms. Comparison of subjects' and non-subjects' responses showed there were no significant differences between the two groups. Among subjects, there were also no differences in responses between examinees and non-examinees. The most common reason for participation in screening was that the screening was conducted in schools and perceived as obligatory. CONCLUSIONS: These results highlighted a serious ethical issue in that school-based screening leads to making young people think that it is mandatory screening in an opt-out and default setting manner, with a lack of knowledge about the disadvantages of screening. Based on the autonomy of the subjects and the ethical principle of the post-disaster, surveys after a nuclear disaster should be conducted in an opt-in style without an opt-out style such as school-based screening.

Early colorectal cancer detection-Current and evolving challenges in evidence, guidelines, policy, and practices.

The understanding at the beginning of the last century that colorectal cancer began as a localized disease that progressed and became systemic, and that most colorectal cancer arose from adenomatous polyps gave rise to aggressive attempts at curative treatment and eventually attempts to detect advanced lesions before they progressed to invasive disease. In the last four decades, steadily greater uptake of screening has led to reductions in colorectal cancer incidence and mortality. However, the fullest potential of screening is not being met due to the lack of organized screening, where a systems approach could lead to higher rates of screening of average and high risk groups, higher quality screening, and prompt followup of adults with positive screening tests. ABSTRACT: Since the beginning of the 20th century, there has been a general understanding that colorectal cancer is a clonal disease that progresses from a localized stage with a favorable prognosis through progressively more advanced stages which have progressively worse prognosis. That understanding led first to determined efforts to detect and treat early stage symptomatic disease, and then to detect pre-symptomatic colorectal cancer and precursor lesions, where there was hope that the natural history of the disease could be arrested and the incidence and premature mortality of colorectal cancer averted. Toward the end of the last century, guidelines for colorectal cancer screening, growth in the number of technical options for screening, and a steady increase in the proportion of the adult population who attended screening contributed to the beginning of a significant decline in colorectal cancer incidence and mortality. Despite this progress, colorectal cancer remains the third leading cause of death among men and women in the United States. Screening for early detection of precursor lesions and localized cancer offers the single most productive opportunity to further reduce the burden of disease, and yet nearly four in five deaths from colorectal cancer are associated with having never been screened, not recently screened, or not followed up for an abnormal screening test. This simple observation is a call to action in all communities to apply existing knowledge to fulfill the potential to prevent avertable incidence and mortality.

Use of the prostate-specific antigen test in the U.S. for men age 30 to 64 in 2011 to 2017 using a large commercial claims database: Implications for practice interventions.

BACKGROUND: Given the public health relevance of PSA-based screening, various professional organizations have issued recommendations on the use of the PSA test to screen for prostate cancer in different age groups. AIM: Using a large commercial claims database, we aimed to determine the most recent rates of PSA testing for privately insured men age 30 to 64 in the context of screening recommendations. METHODS AND RESULTS: Data from employer plans were from MarketScan commercial claims database. Annual PSA testing rate was the proportion of men with ≥1 paid test(s) per 12 months of continuous enrollment. Men with diagnosis of any prostate-related condition were excluded. Annual percent change (APC) in PSA test use was estimated using joinpoint regression analysis. In 2011 to 2017, annual testing rate encompassing 5.02 to 5.53 million men was approximately 1.4%, age 30 to 34; 3.4% to 4.1%, age 35 to 39; 11% to 13%, age 40 to 44; 18% to 21%, age 45 to 49; 31% to 33%, age 50 to 54; 35% to 37%, age 55 to 59; and 38% to 41%, age 60 to 64. APC for 2011 to 2017 was -0.5% (P = .11), age 30 to 34; -3.0% (P = .001), age 35-39; -3.1% (P < .001), age 40 to 44; -2.4% (P = .001), age 45 to 49; -0.2% (P = .66), age 50 to 54; 0.0% (P = .997), age 55 to 59; and -3.3% (P = .054) from 2011 to 2013 and 1.2% (P = .045) from 2013 to 2017, age 60 to 64. PSA testing rate decreased from 2011 to 2017 for age groups between 35 and 49 by 13.4% to 16.9%. CONCLUSIONS: Based on these data, PSA testing rate has modestly decreased from 2011 to 2017. These results, however, should be considered in view of the limitation that MarketScan claims data may not be equated to actual PSA testing practices in the entire U.S. population age 30 to 64. Future research should be directed to understand why clinicians continue ordering PSA test for men younger than 50.

Use of the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test in the United States for men age ≥65, 1999-2015: Implications for practice interventions.

BACKGROUND: Various professional organizations have issued recommendations on use of the PSA test to screen for prostate cancer in different age groups. AIMS: Using Medicare claims databases, we aimed to determine rates of PSA testing in the context of screening recommendations during 1999-2015 for US men age ≥65, stratified by age group and census regions, after excluding claims relating to all prostate-related conditions. METHODS AND RESULTS: Medicare claims databases encompassed 9.71-11.12 million men for the years under study. PSA testing rate was the proportion of men with ≥1 test(s) per 12 months of continuous enrollment. Men diagnosed with any prostate-related condition were excluded. Annual percent change (APC) in PSA test use was estimated using joinpoint regression analysis. In 1999-2015, annual testing rate was 10.1%-23.1%, age ≥85; 16.6%-31.0%, age 80-84; 23.8%-35.8%, age 75-79; 28.3%-36.9%, age 70-74; and 26.4%-33.6%, age 65-69. From 1999 to 2015, PSA testing rate decreased 40.7%, 29.9%, 13.9%, and 2.9%, respectively, for men age ≥85, 80-84, 75-79, and 70-74. For men age 65-69, test use increased by 0.3%. Significant APC trends were: APC1999-2002  = +8.1%, P = .029 and APC2008-2015  = -9.0%, P < .001 for men age ≥85; APC2008-2015  = -7.1%, P = .001 for men age 80-84; APC2001-2015  = -2.5%, P < .001 for men age 75-79; APC2008-2015  = -3.3%, P = .007 for men age 70-74; and APC2010-2015  = -5.2%, P = .014 for men age 65-69. COCLUSION: Although decreased from 1999 to 2015, PSA testing rates remained high for men age ≥70. Further research could help understand why PSA testing continues inconsistent with recommendations.

Updated Review of Major Cancer Risk Factors and Screening Test Use in the United States in 2018 and 2019, with a Focus on Smoking Cessation.

Cancer prevention and early detection efforts are central to reducing cancer burden. Herein, we present estimates of cancer risk factors and screening tests in 2018 and 2019 among US adults, with a focus on smoking cessation. Cigarette smoking reached a historic low in 2019 (14.2%) partly because 61.7% (54.9 million) of all persons who had ever smoked had quit. Yet, the quit ratio was <45% among lower-income, uninsured, and Medicaid-insured persons, and was <55% among Black, American Indian/Alaska Native, lower-educated, lesbian, gay or bisexual, and recent immigrant persons, and in 12 of 17 Southern states. Obesity levels remain high (2017-2018: 42.4%) and were disproportionately higher among Black (56.9%) and Hispanic (43.7%) women. HPV vaccination in adolescents 13 to 17 years remains underutilized and over 40% were not up-to-date in 2019. Cancer screening prevalence was suboptimal in 2018 (colorectal cancer ≥50 years: 65.6%; breast ≥45 years: 63.2%; cervical 21-65 years: 83.7%), especially among uninsured adults (colorectal: 29.8%; breast: 31.1%). This snapshot of cancer prevention and early detection measures was mixed, and substantial racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities persisted. However, gains could be accelerated with targeted interventions to increase smoking cessation in under-resourced populations, stem the obesity epidemic, and improve screening and HPV vaccination coverage.

Seizing the Means of Reproduction? Canada, Cancer Screening, and the Colonial History of the Cytopipette.

In recent years, self-sampling has emerged as a compelling way of increasing cervical cancer screening rates within First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities. By allowing women to take their own samples in private, when and where they are most comfortable, home testing kits have been framed as a new, unequivocally feminist technology, and a panacea in Indigenous health. But are these techniques really as ethical and empowering as they have been made out to be? To answer this question, this article traces the history of the uptake and use of cervical cancer screening technologies in Canada. By tracing the mechanics and motivations of two state-sponsored cervical cancer screening studies carried out by Canada's Department of Indian Health Services during the mid to late twentieth century, this piece explores the settler-colonial roots of cancer surveillance, and shows how the implementation of both Pap-testing and DIY forms of screening within Indigenous communities has, at least historically, been more about enacting biopolitical regimes than promoting feminist ideals or improving health outcomes.

Health Insurance Coverage Mandates: Colorectal Cancer Screening in the Post-ACA Era.

Building a culture of precision public health requires research that includes health delivery model with innovative systems, health policies, and programs that support this vision. Health insurance mandates are effective mechanisms that many state policymakers use to increase the utilization of preventive health services, such as colorectal cancer screening. This study estimated the effects of health insurance mandate variations on colorectal cancer screening post Affordable Care Act (ACA) era. The study analyzed secondary data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) and the NCI State Cancer Legislative Database (SCLD) from 1997 to 2014. BRFSS data were merged with SCLD data by state ID. The target population was U.S. adults, age 50 to 74, who lived in states where health insurance was mandated or nonmandated before and after the implementation of ACA. Using a difference-in-differences (DD) approach with a time-series analysis, we evaluated the effects of health insurance mandates on colorectal cancer screening status based on U.S. Preventive Services Task Force guidelines. The adjusted average marginal effects from the DD model indicate that health insurance mandates increased the probability of up-to-date screenings versus noncompliance by 2.8% points, suggesting that an estimated 2.37 million additional age-eligible persons would receive a screening with such health insurance mandates. Compliant participants' mean age was 65 years and 57% were women (n = 32,569). Our findings are robust for various model specifications. Health insurance mandates that lower out-of-pocket expenses constitute an effective approach to increase colorectal cancer screenings for the population, as a whole. PREVENTION RELEVANCE: The value added includes future health care reforms that increase access to preventive services, such as CRC screening, are likely with lower out-of-pocket costs and will increase the number of people who are considered "up-to-date". Such policies have been used historically to improve health outcomes, and they are currently being used as public health strategies to increase access to preventive health services in an effort to improve the nation's health.

Control of cervical cancer in Minas Gerais in the mid-1900s: the Belo Horizonte Hospital of Gynecology. / A experiência mineira no controle do câncer do colo do útero em meados do século XX: o Hospital de Ginecologia de Belo Horizonte.

This article discusses the structuring of the Hospital of Gynecology in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, which was founded by the gynecologist Clóvis Salgado in 1939 as part of efforts to control cervical cancer. Created as a space for practical teaching in the School of Medicine, the hospital was a pioneer in introducing colposcopy in the state and establishing a structure specifically for care and diagnosis. This analysis investigates how promoting and attempting to assert diagnostic technologies were important in organizing this institution and its professional staff. The hospital firmly established itself in terms of activities to control cervical cancer by disseminating colposcopy as a technique, establishing dialogs with similar national institutions, and participating in exchanges with German science.

O artigo discute a organização do Hospital de Ginecologia em Belo Horizonte, fundado pelo ginecologista Clóvis Salgado, em 1939, atentando para sua atuação no controle do câncer do colo do útero. Criado como espaço para ensino prático da Faculdade de Medicina, foi pioneiro na introdução da colposcopia em Minas Gerais e na montagem de uma estrutura própria de atendimento e diagnóstico. Na análise, investiga-se como a promoção e tentativa de afirmação das tecnologias de diagnóstico foram pontos importantes na estruturação da instituição e de seu corpo profissional. O hospital afirmou-se na organização de ações de controle da doença, por meio da difusão da técnica, do diálogo com instituições nacionais congêneres e do intercâmbio com a ciência alemã.

A experiência mineira no controle do câncer do colo do útero em meados do século XX: o Hospital de Ginecologia de Belo Horizonte / Control of cervical cancer in Minas Gerais in the mid-1900s: the Belo Horizonte Hospital of Gynecology

Resumo O artigo discute a organização do Hospital de Ginecologia em Belo Horizonte, fundado pelo ginecologista Clóvis Salgado, em 1939, atentando para sua atuação no controle do câncer do colo do útero. Criado como espaço para ensino prático da Faculdade de Medicina, foi pioneiro na introdução da colposcopia em Minas Gerais e na montagem de uma estrutura própria de atendimento e diagnóstico. Na análise, investiga-se como a promoção e tentativa de afirmação das tecnologias de diagnóstico foram pontos importantes na estruturação da instituição e de seu corpo profissional. O hospital afirmou-se na organização de ações de controle da doença, por meio da difusão da técnica, do diálogo com instituições nacionais congêneres e do intercâmbio com a ciência alemã.

Abstract This article discusses the structuring of the Hospital of Gynecology in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, which was founded by the gynecologist Clóvis Salgado in 1939 as part of efforts to control cervical cancer. Created as a space for practical teaching in the School of Medicine, the hospital was a pioneer in introducing colposcopy in the state and establishing a structure specifically for care and diagnosis. This analysis investigates how promoting and attempting to assert diagnostic technologies were important in organizing this institution and its professional staff. The hospital firmly established itself in terms of activities to control cervical cancer by disseminating colposcopy as a technique, establishing dialogs with similar national institutions, and participating in exchanges with German science.

The National Colorectal Cancer Roundtable: Past Performance, Current and Future Goals.

The National Colorectal Cancer Roundtable (NCCRT) is an organization of organizations with staffing, funding and leadership provided by the American Cancer Society (ACS) and guidance and funding by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In 2014, ACS, CDC, and the NCCRT launched the 80% by 2018 campaign. This highly successful initiative activated hundreds of organizations to prioritize colorectal cancer screening, disseminated smart, evidence-based interventions, and ultimately led to 9.3 million more Americans being up to date with screening compared with the precampaign rate. It's new campaign, 80% in Every Community, is designed to address persistent screening disparities.

Still Controversial: Early Detection and Screening for Breast Cancer in Brazil, 1950-2010s.

Mammographic screening for breast cancer is a widely used public health approach, but is constantly a subject of controversy. Medical and historical research on this topic has been mainly conducted in Western Europe and North America. In Brazil, screening mammography has been an open topic of discussion and a challenge for health care and public health since the 1970s. Effectively, Brazilian public health agencies never implemented a nationwide population-based screening programme for breast cancer, despite the pressures of many specific groups such as advocacy associations and the implementation of local programmes. This article examines the complex process of incorporating mammography as a diagnostic tool and the debates towards implementing screening programmes in Brazil. We argue that debates about screening for breast malignancies, especially those conducted in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, took place in a context of change and uncertainty in the Brazilian health field. These discussions were strongly affected both by tensions between the public and the private health care sectors during the formative period of a new Brazilian health system, and by the growing role of civil society actors. Our study investigates these tensions and their consequences. We use several medical sources that discussed the topic in Brazil, mainly specialised leading oncology journals published between 1950 and 2017, medical congress reports for the same period, books and theses, institutional documents and oral testimonies of health professionals, patients and associations collected in the framework of the 'The History of Cancer' project from the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation and Brazilian National Cancer Institute.

Professor Anastas Kocarev, First Macedonian Oncologist with Worldwide Reputation and Pioneer in Cancer Diagnostics and Treatment with Radium.

PhD. Anastas Kocarev (Kotzareff in French) is one of the most prominent Macedonian doctors and experts, prolific contributor to the cancer research in Switzerland and France in the first decades of the 20th century. He was born in Ohrid on May 5th, 1889. He graduated from the Faculty of Medicine in Geneva where he defended a doctorate in medicine in 1915. In 1916 he was elected Assistant Professor (Private Docent) at that Faculty. He was a prominent scientist and professor of experimental medicine at the Faculty of Medicine in Geneva and the Sorbonne University in Paris, with a wide reputation in Europe and the United States. PhD. A. Kocarev is one of the pioneers of oncology and radiology in the world, a forerunner of modern nuclear medicine and positron emission tomography. He was a close associate of Nobel laureate in chemistry and physics Maria Sklodovska-Curie and at her invitation moved to Paris in 1925 to continue the research on the diagnosis and treatment of cancer using radium. He was fully devoted to science and published numerous scientific papers and books with high citations and dissemination in many medical libraries in Europe and beyond. In addition to his professional teaching and scientific work as a top oncologist-radiologist, he was a great patriot with advanced political ideas. He founded the Academic Society "Macedonia" in Geneva, in 1915, and united it with other Macedonian political associations from Zurich and Lausanne, in 1918, into a joint "Alliance of Macedonian Societies for Independent Macedonia", with commitments, activities and initiatives to the Society of Nations, based in Geneva, Switzerland, for the proper resolution of the Macedonian national issue by creating a united and independent state "Macedonia" or the formation of a "Balkan Federation". He died suddenly in Paris on March 29, 1931.

Screening for breast cancer in 2018-what should we be doing today?

Although screening mammography has delivered many benefits since its introduction in Canada in 1988, questions about perceived harms warrant an up-to-date review. To help oncologists and physicians provide optimal patient recommendations, the literature was reviewed to find the latest guidelines for screening mammography, including benefits and perceived harms of overdiagnosis, false positives, false negatives, and technologic advances. For women 40-74 years of age who actually participate in screening every 1-2 years, breast cancer mortality is reduced by 40%. With appropriate corrections, overdiagnosis accounts for 10% or fewer breast cancers. False positives occur in about 10% of screened women, 80% of which are resolved with additional imaging, and 10%, with breast biopsy. An important limitation of screening is the false negatives (15%-20%). The technologic advances of digital breast tomosynthesis, breast ultrasonography, and magnetic resonance imaging counter the false negatives of screening mammography, particularly in women with dense breast tissue.