Editorial
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Oncol. Oct 10, 2015; 6(5): 109-110
Published online Oct 10, 2015. doi: 10.5306/wjco.v6.i5.109
Cancer screening: Between appropriateness and effectiveness
Mostafa A Arafa
Mostafa A Arafa, Faculty of Medicine, King Saud University, PO Box 45632, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Author contributions: Arafa MA wrote the editorial.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The author has no conflict of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Mostafa A Arafa, Professor of Epidemiology, cancer research chair, Faculty of Medicine, King Saud University, PO Box 45632, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. mostafaarafa@hotmail.com
Telephone: +966-50-8129051 Fax: +966-50-4567324
Received: May 11, 2015
Peer-review started: May 18, 2015
First decision: June 24, 2015
Revised: July 26, 2015
Accepted: August 13, 2015
Article in press: August 14, 2015
Published online: October 10, 2015
Processing time: 154 Days and 16.2 Hours
Abstract

Two similar words, effectiveness and efficacy, have comparable insight and nearly describe analogous meaning for a screening test, yet clear understanding and perception of their diverse meanings will help clarify the basis of the differing conclusions about whether screening tests for different cancers reduce morbidity and mortality. Screening test may not be effective even when it sounds to be efficacious, on the other hand it should be efficacious when the test is effective.

Keywords: Mortality; Screening test; Effectiveness; Efficacy; Cancer; Early detection

Core tip: Screening test should take account of heterogeneity among cancers. The effectiveness of any screening test should be evaluated on the basis of “whether it does more good than harm”. Health professionals should be aware that such tests should outweigh the potential harm of investigating healthy people and consider the effect of intervening in apparently symptomless people.