Learning about politics in the midst of screening recommendations

The recent recommendation by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force that women get less frequent screenings for cervical cancer demonstrated a remarkably different response than other such recommendations.

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Call it learning a painful political lesson. When the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force issued new draft guidelines this week that recommended less frequent cervical cancer screenings, they were greeted with broad agreement by leading cancer patient advocacy groups, including the American Cancer Society. The reaction was markedly different than the blowback from patient advocates that occurred when the federal advisory group previously suggested less frequent cancer screenings (Daly, 10/20).

In related coverage, PBS Newshour reports on the tough questions for doctors and patients that are following recent changes in prostate cancer screening.

PBS Newshour: Patients, Doctors Face Tough Questions Amid Changes in Prostate Cancer Screening
Sixty-five-year-old Terry Dyroff and his wife, Patricia, can't forget what happened four years ago, shortly after he underwent a biopsy for prostate cancer. The retired professor had the procedure after a PSA test showed high levels of protein being released from his prostate gland, a possible indication of cancer. ...  The infection was rare, Dyroff recovered. But it's those kinds of complications connected with the testing that have stirred controversy around a new government recommendation on the test, which is now routinely given to men over 50 (Bowser, 10/20).