Why do so many people with cancer go undiagnosed?

by Dylainie Charley

Cancer is something I hope no one must deal with. Unfortunately, it affects so many people in many ways. Whether it’s your immediate family, extended family, or even your pet, it hurts to know someone you love is plagued by a sickness that will never really goes away. However, if caught early, cancer can be treated, and the patient is more likely to live longer. If this is well known, why do so many people with cancer go undiagnosed?

Specifically, lung cancer goes undetected often. This is mostly because of guidelines set by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), an independent advisory panel. The guidelines set requirements for people to have for them to qualify for a screening. Some of the qualifications include being 50 to 80 years old, having a smoking history of at least 20 pack-years (a pack a day for 20 years, two packs a day for 10 years, and so on), and currently smoking or having quit within the past 15 years. This criterion is supposed to help identify patients the most at risk, however, it just makes it harder for people to get diagnosed early. About 35 percent of all patients with lung cancer don’t meet these criteria. It is even worse for marginalized groups. The 35 percent shoots up to 66 percent for black women with lung cancer. Only 5 percent of people who met the criteria were screened for lung cancer in 2015.

So how can we try to fix this? There are other ways than being one of the many scientists in a lab looking for new cures and treatments. First, we can spread awareness. It’s never a bad thing to ask your doctor or do research on your own. It is also good to know yourself. This goes for all types of cancers. Look to see if there’s anything different about your body because you may catch something early. Next, we can work towards expanding the testing criteria. Since 2001 an initiative has been led to open lung cancer screening to anyone 40 or older, regardless of smoking history.

There is the question of whether there will be overdiagnosis and will the radiation from testing increases the chances of cancer. However, as said by Hazard-Jenkins, “at the moment, I’m not sure you could over screen because we’re so profoundly underscreening.”

As someone who has had many family members die from cancer, I believe it is important to be diagnosed early, but guidelines like these make it hard. Hopefully in the future guidelines and technology would have improved enough to stop the endless amounts of cancer deaths.