Early Cancer Detection Fizzles Again Newsweek article

How much less threatening are cancers detected early? Last November, scientists reported that about one quarter of breast cancers detected (early) on mammograms vanish spontaneously. Yet breast-cancer survivors swear early detection saved their life. Some melanomas, kidney cancers and neuroblastomas perform a similar vanishing act, says Kramer. Will doctors' enthusiasm and patients' demand for cancer screening diminish as a result of the science? After the PSA studies came out, a scientist told clinicians he assumed so. They looked at him as if he were crazy. No matter what science says, it will be a cold day in hell before patients let go of the one slender hope they feel they have to beat cancer.