Intended for healthcare professionals

Rapid response to:

Views & Reviews No Holds Barred

Margaret McCartney: Early cancer diagnosis: how low should we go?

BMJ 2015; 351 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.h6442 (Published 30 November 2015) Cite this as: BMJ 2015;351:h6442

Rapid Response:

Imperative patient informed consent

Charities have direct economic benefits by arbitrarily exaggerating slogans like "early cancer diagnosis", "early detection", "reduced mortality", "lives saved", "healthy prevention", etc. [1]
Someone should inform NICE counsellors that "cancer screening has never been shown to save lives". [2]
References
[1] http://www.bmj.com/content/345/bmj.e5132/rr
[2] BMJ 2016;352:h6080
http://www.bmj.com/content/352/bmj.h6080

Competing interests: No competing interests

28 February 2016
Stavros Saripanidis
Consultant in Obstetrics and Gynaecology
Thessaloniki, Greece