Historically, cancer has occurred at a lower rate in aboriginal populations; however, it is now dramatically increasing. Unless preventive measures are taken, cancer rates among aboriginal peoples are expected to soon surpass those in non-aboriginal populations. Because a large proportion of malignant disorders are preventable, primary prevention through socioeconomic interventions, environment...

Dear Editor, Early detection of malignancies is not easy. Few methods of health screening have been proven to be of value. The use of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) in health screening has never been proven to result in early detection of cancers1 but requests to test tumour markers continue to be made. A raised CEA is not an uncommon fi nding and there are no established protocols on how to ap...

BACKGROUND/AIMS The aim of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of health screening for early detection and improved prognosis in pancreatic cancer. METHODS Between 1995 and 2008, 176,361 examinees visited the Health Promotion Center (HPC). Twenty patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer were enrolled. During the same period, 40 patients were randomly selected from 2,202 patients diagno...

The introduction of the Mammography Screening Program (MSP) in 2005 has changed the early detection of breast cancer in Germany significantly. We analyzed the frequency and ensuing health care costs of mammograms performed for the early detection of breast cancer before and after the introduction of the MSP. Furthermore, we analyzed the influence of the MSP on the demographics of physicians (gy...

BACKGROUND Oral and pharyngeal cancer is a serious health threat that goes unnoticed by most people. Increasing screenings for oral and pharyngeal cancer is essential to achieving early detection when the disease is most treatable. PURPOSE We tested the effectiveness of a media campaign designed to increase intentions to seek an oral and pharyngeal cancer screening. We further examined whethe...

OBJECTIVE Texas mandates a two-test newborn screening program for congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH): one test at birth and a second test at approximately one to two weeks after birth. The authors compared the dollar cost of detecting infants with CAH clinically and through the screening program. METHODS The authors estimated the costs of screening newborns in 1994 for CAH, including resour...

Parameters that show a significant genotypic variation at early growth stages and are associated with salt tolerance at later stages may be used as rapid and economic screening criteria in breeding programs. The objective of this study was to test growth parameters at early growth stages for evaluating the salt tolerance of wheat genotypes. Ten wheat genotypes that differ from their salt tolera...

The axiom that prevention is better than cure is especially true for a serious disease such as cancer for which therapy is expensive and seldom fully effective. However, it is only for some cancers that the major determinants are known and for which primary prevention programs are likely to result in substantial reduction in incidence. Past efforts at primary prevention have not been very succe...

OBJECTIVE: The goal was to provide an update of the 2004 US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) statement about screening for visual impairment in children 5 years of age. METHODS: The USPSTF examined evidence on the association of screening for visual impairment in children 1 to 5 years of age with improved health outcomes, the accuracy of risk factor assessment and screening tests, the ef...

BACKGROUND Cancer screening reduces cancer mortality when early detection allows successful treatment of otherwise fatal disease. There are a variety of trial designs used to find the best screening test. In a series screening trial design, the decision to conduct the second test is based on the results of the first test. Thus, the estimates of diagnostic accuracy for the second test are condit...