Submitted by Irena Rao on Mon, 01/01/2024 - 23:26
As researchers gain more understanding about the risk of cancer and develop tests to diagnose it earlier, it's vital that they also consider how to tell the dangerous cancers from the harmless ones.
Overdiagnosis of a cancer that wouldn’t have gone on to cause harm in a person’s lifetime is one of the key considerations when weighing up the balance of benefits and harms associated with interventions such as cancer screening.
Elspeth Davies is a fourth year PhD student in Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge who has first-hand experience in this subject, having been diagnosed with an early stage melanoma during her teenage years.
She has recently written an article for the British Medical Journal's Evidence-Based Medicine - Patient Voices section, 'Informed by research, transformed by research'.
In the article, Elspeth talks candidly about her diagnosis and how the subsequent treatment and concern about future disease affected her, including the realisation that there was a possibility she was overdiagnosed.
Explaining the inspiration for the article, she says "My research into issues surrounding cancer early detection led me to a conference on the topic of overdiagnosis which, as this article illustrates, was personally transformative. I am grateful to the BMJ for giving me a space to discuss this experience."
As a student on the International Alliance for Cancer Early Detection (ACED) PhD Programme, Elspeth is interested in the social and ethical issues surrounding cancer early detection in the UK. Her doctoral research follows the implementation trial of a new method of oesophageal cancer screening, looking at how knowledge about cancer risk is brought into being and, most importantly, lived in clinics, support groups, at kitchen tables, and beyond.
She says that "Social anthropology can offer a novel lens through which to study scientific developments in the field of cancer early detection. Our methods - which include long term fieldwork - can make visible social and moral complexities and consequences that might otherwise be overlooked."
Informed by research, transformed by research
Davies E, BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine. Published Online 19 October 2023
https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjebm-2023-112646