Cancer screening and informed consent. A new French exception?

摘要

Hersch et al. (2011) wisely pledged for the ethical obligation to make balanced information regarding screening advantages and disadvantages. Sadly they failed to acknowledge the enduring breaches in our main commitment to those we must serve. Stating that "public support for cancer screening is strong, due in part to the contribution of powerful screening promotion messages" is putting one's head in the sand (Hersch et al., 2011). No one can ignore the worldwide marketing of fear with "a female born today has a 1 in 8 chance of being diagnosed with breast cancer sometime during her life." The true figure is 1 out of 27 for those aged from 60 to 70. In developed countries such as France, 4.4% of women's deaths are due to breast cancer which is also the figure for injuries and far less than the one third due to cardio-vascular diseases.