American Cancer Society said “no” to cancer tests

The great number of cancer cases found in stars terrified the commoners and now they rush to hospitals to be diagnosed. But American Cancer Society said “no” to cancer test.

If a simple, painless test can find the world's deadliest cancer when it is smaller than a pea - and such a test does indeed exist - shouldn't people who are most at risk have one?

Surprisingly, the federal government, American Cancer Society and a raft of cancer specialists say the answer is "no."

They are waging an uphill battle as frightened current and former smokers rush to get a special kind of X-ray that other physicians are urging for lung cancer detection but that has not yet conclusively been shown to save lives.

A huge federal study is under way to see if it can, and answers may come as soon as next year. In the meantime, it's generating a classic "can't wait for science" stampede.

The clamor rose last week with the deaths of newsman Peter Jennings and "Dallas" star Barbara Bel Geddes, and the news that "Superman" widow Dana Reeve has lung cancer.

Patricia Dowds and her husband, David Byrom, psychologists from Long Island, are among the many former smokers who voted with their wallets and had the $300 test on Friday.

"We do it for our own peace of mind," Dowds was quoted as saying by AP.

No one disputes that the test, called a spiral or helical CT scan, detects lung abnormalities as small as 5 millimeters - less than a fifth of an inch.

The argument is over whether that's a good thing.

For every cancer these scans detect, many more "false positives" occur - harmless bumps and lumps leading to painful, expensive and unnecessary biopsies and surgeries. Complications can include lung collapse, bleeding and infection, AP informs.

"The concern that we have is false positive rates," which range from 25 percent to as high as 60 percent, said Tom Glynn, the cancer society's director of science and trends. "What we don't want to do is create even more anxiety."