[Overdiagnosis in cancer screening]

Abstract

In screening programs, overdiagnosis is defined as the detection of a disease that would have gone undetected without screening when that disease would not have resulted in morbimortality and was treated unnecessarily. Overdiagnosis is a bias inherent in screening and an undesired effect of secondary prevention and improved sensitivity of diagnostic techniques. It is difficult to discriminate a priori between clinically relevant diagnoses and those in which treatment is unnecessary. To minimize the effects of overdiagnosis, screening should be done in patients at risk.

Keywords: Breast cancer overdiagnosis; Cancer screening; Cribado de cáncer; Detección precoz de cáncer; Early detection of cancer; Lung cancer overdiagnosis; Overdiagnosis of cancer; Prostate cancer overdiagnosis; Sobrediagnóstico de cáncer; Sobrediagnóstico de cáncer de mama; Sobrediagnóstico de cáncer de próstata; Sobrediagnóstico de cáncer de pulmón.