Dec. 15, 2022 — Only 14.1 percent of cancer cases in the United States are diagnosed with recommended screening tests, a new report says.
Instead, most cancers are discovered when someone seeks medical attention for other reasons, according to information released by the nonprofit research organization University of ChicagoNORC.
“It’s shocking to me that only 14% of cancers are detected by screening. I think for many people we’re talking so much about cancer screening that we think that’s how all cancers are diagnosed. We There’s been talk about mammograms and colonoscopies,” said report author Caroline Pearson, the group’s senior vice president. CNN.
Only breast, cervical, colorectal, and lung cancers have screenings recommended by the US Preventive Services Task Force. Of these, the following are the percentages of cancers detected by screening:
- 61% of breast cancers
- 52% of cervical cancers
- 45% of colorectal cancers
- 3% of lung cancers
The report also shared information about prostate cancer, but did not widely recommend screening for it. The report recommends that screening detects 77 percent of prostate cancers.
This information has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal. It is based on 2017 data. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of cancer screenings has declined since then, Pearson said.
“I definitely think the percentage of cancers that are detected by screening will be lower because of the pandemic. We know that people miss a lot of the recommended screenings, and we’re seeing these cancers emerge later in the clinical setting,” Pearson said.
