U.S. Preventive Services Task Force reaffirms guidelines it issued in 1996 and 2016
TUESDAY, May 9, 2017 (HealthDay News) — Clinicians should not routinely screen adults for thyroid cancer if they have no symptoms or warning signs of the disease, according to a final recommendation statement issued by the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force and published in the May 9 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The Task Force reviewed the available evidence on the benefits and risks of screening. The panel reaffirmed the guidelines it issued in 1996 and 2016.
While screening for the disease does increase the number of people diagnosed with thyroid cancer, it doesn’t reduce mortality rates associated with the disease, the Task Force concluded.
“Overdiagnosis occurs because screening for thyroid cancer often identifies small or slow growing tumors that might never affect a person during their lifetime,” Task Force member Seth Landefeld, M.D., of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, said in a statement. “People who are treated for these small tumors are exposed to serious risks from surgery or radiation, but do not receive any real benefit.”
Copyright © 2017 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
