2018 Volume 67 Issue 2 Pages 131-135
Cervical cancer is common among women. Screening for cervical cancer is useful for detecting and treating the disease at an early stage. Cancer screening has advantages as well as disadvantages. In particular, we need to consider both advantages and disadvantages of population-based cancer screening and try to minimize disadvantages to ensure cancer control. Disadvantages include false-positive and false-negative results and over-diagnosis. Due to trade-off characteristic of population-based cancer screening, typically we obtain more false-positive results in consequence of lessened false-negative results. It has been reported that even if the result is false-positive, patients experience adverse effects, such as physical, psychological, and economical burdens and decreased quality of life owing to the additional examinations until the accurate results are obtained. Hence, we need to determine concrete measures to avoid these adverse effects. This article discusses the importance and limitations of cancer screening, especially the adverse effects in patients with false-positive screening results.
