Overdiagnosis? Why finding cancer isn’t always the same as saving lives

By Ahmed Elbediwy, Senior Lecturer in Cancer Biology & Clinical Biochemistry, Kingston University
Nadine Wehida, Senior Lecturer in Genetics and Molecular Biology, Kingston University

When South Korean doctors launched a nationwide thyroid cancer screening programme, diagnoses shot up 15 fold. Yet the death rate from thyroid cancer didn’t budge. More patients were being created than lives were being saved.

It is a clear illustration of a problem that is quietly reshaping how doctors think about cancer: overdiagnosis. Not misdiagnosis but the accurate detection of tumours that would not actually harm the patient.

Modern cancer screening is rightly…

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