Should blood tests to screen for cancer be used on a population basis? Elizabeth Tracey reports

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When large populations of people were screened for multiple cancers using a blood test, not only didn’t cancers get found earlier, others who were not screened had delays in their diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center director William Nelson explains why this might happen.

Nelson: As you begin to get these tests you need a work up to evaluate the suspicious tests. You need CT scans, you need further blood tests, you need biopsies. You might need referral to a very specific specialist. And the worry is is that as you utilize these resources the rest of the people in the region may have scarce resources or impeded access. This issue of an early test that you give a lot of people that creates a lot of medical effort afterwards is clearly going to consume more resources.  :34

Nelson says the tests need to get much better before population screening will help. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.