The Case for Screening
Oncologists will also tell you that detecting the smallest of cancers is not the sole answer to saving a life. As Sandra Swain, medical director of the Washington Cancer Institute of the Washington Hospital Center, points out, a woman with a tiny, 3-mm breast tumor can surprisingly progress to advanced disease in months, while others with 10-cm tumors can do well a decade or more later. "We are in our infancy in understanding the biology of solid tumors," she says. "They can show great heterogeneity in outcome and survival that we don't fully understand yet." Though current early-screening tests may not be perfect and will get better, she and other oncologists will tell you, they are the best we have. Let's not let the perfect get in the way of the good.
In the process, those who can benefit from early detection will do so. Others with more aggressive cancers will at least have been given a chance-and at the same time will provide biological insights that in the long run should help others.
advertisement
