Dr. Suzanne O'Sullivan

If we work really hard to try and find loads of asymptomatic people at risk of problems, we overdiagnose. But obviously, symptomatic disease is a completely different thing that does need to be taken more seriously. However...

When it comes to things that come to a doctor and how one should approach that, very often the time is a better answer to medical problems than bunches of scans and loads of blood tests. You know, medicine and diagnosis is still a clinical art. Tests need to be put into a clinical perspective.

When it comes to things that come to a doctor and how one should approach that, very often the time is a better answer to medical problems than bunches of scans and loads of blood tests. You know, medicine and diagnosis is still a clinical art. Tests need to be put into a clinical perspective.

When it comes to things that come to a doctor and how one should approach that, very often the time is a better answer to medical problems than bunches of scans and loads of blood tests. You know, medicine and diagnosis is still a clinical art. Tests need to be put into a clinical perspective.

you will get a better and more reliable diagnosis from a good doctor who takes time listening to you and examining you than you will from a scan. Because again, the problem is that scans and blood tests, they pick up irregularities all the time. You can be overdiagnosed very, very easily if a doctor sends you for a scan every time you go and see them.

you will get a better and more reliable diagnosis from a good doctor who takes time listening to you and examining you than you will from a scan. Because again, the problem is that scans and blood tests, they pick up irregularities all the time. You can be overdiagnosed very, very easily if a doctor sends you for a scan every time you go and see them.

you will get a better and more reliable diagnosis from a good doctor who takes time listening to you and examining you than you will from a scan. Because again, the problem is that scans and blood tests, they pick up irregularities all the time. You can be overdiagnosed very, very easily if a doctor sends you for a scan every time you go and see them.

I mean, obviously, finding progressive cancer early is the aim. But the difficulty is that... Our science isn't very good at doing it yet. So I'm not suggesting this won't be a wonderful strategy in the future. But unfortunately, there are some cancers and pancreatic cancer would be one of those that spreads very quickly and therefore screening programs don't work very well for those.

I mean, obviously, finding progressive cancer early is the aim. But the difficulty is that... Our science isn't very good at doing it yet. So I'm not suggesting this won't be a wonderful strategy in the future. But unfortunately, there are some cancers and pancreatic cancer would be one of those that spreads very quickly and therefore screening programs don't work very well for those.

I mean, obviously, finding progressive cancer early is the aim. But the difficulty is that... Our science isn't very good at doing it yet. So I'm not suggesting this won't be a wonderful strategy in the future. But unfortunately, there are some cancers and pancreatic cancer would be one of those that spreads very quickly and therefore screening programs don't work very well for those.

So, for example, ovarian cancer spreads very quickly. You don't have a screening program for that because by the time it's found, it's often already spread and that can be a difficulty. So other cancers spread very slowly or grow or don't grow at all. And that's where overdiagnosis, so underdiagnosis occurs in some cancers because they're hard to detect or they spread very quickly.

So, for example, ovarian cancer spreads very quickly. You don't have a screening program for that because by the time it's found, it's often already spread and that can be a difficulty. So other cancers spread very slowly or grow or don't grow at all. And that's where overdiagnosis, so underdiagnosis occurs in some cancers because they're hard to detect or they spread very quickly.

So, for example, ovarian cancer spreads very quickly. You don't have a screening program for that because by the time it's found, it's often already spread and that can be a difficulty. So other cancers spread very slowly or grow or don't grow at all. And that's where overdiagnosis, so underdiagnosis occurs in some cancers because they're hard to detect or they spread very quickly.

Overdiagnosis occurs in other cancers because some don't grow at all. So there's absolutely no doubt that the logic behind that we should try and find them early is the correct one. But the point is, we're not very good at doing that yet. We just have not mastered that yet.

Overdiagnosis occurs in other cancers because some don't grow at all. So there's absolutely no doubt that the logic behind that we should try and find them early is the correct one. But the point is, we're not very good at doing that yet. We just have not mastered that yet.

Overdiagnosis occurs in other cancers because some don't grow at all. So there's absolutely no doubt that the logic behind that we should try and find them early is the correct one. But the point is, we're not very good at doing that yet. We just have not mastered that yet.

Well, that's precisely the point of how one could perhaps think about how one deals differently with this issue of screened cancers. So, again, I'm talking a cancer that presents with symptoms is completely different. But let's say a cancer found on screening. You can actually consider a watchful waiting program for those cancers.

Well, that's precisely the point of how one could perhaps think about how one deals differently with this issue of screened cancers. So, again, I'm talking a cancer that presents with symptoms is completely different. But let's say a cancer found on screening. You can actually consider a watchful waiting program for those cancers.

Well, that's precisely the point of how one could perhaps think about how one deals differently with this issue of screened cancers. So, again, I'm talking a cancer that presents with symptoms is completely different. But let's say a cancer found on screening. You can actually consider a watchful waiting program for those cancers.

So a lot of abnormal breast cancer cells and a lot of abnormal prostate cancer cells don't necessarily progress to be life threatening. And what you can do in those situations is do exactly what you're suggesting, which is monitor them with scans over time to look to see, is this one that's progressing or is it staying the same?