[Overdiagnosis in cancer screening].

Area of Science:

• Medical screening
• Diagnostic techniques
• Preventive medicine

Background:

• Overdiagnosis is a significant issue in medical screening programs.
• It involves detecting diseases that would not have caused significant health problems or death.
• This leads to unnecessary treatment and associated harms.

Purpose of the Study:

• To define and explain the concept of overdiagnosis in screening.
• To highlight overdiagnosis as an inherent bias and undesired effect.
• To propose strategies for minimizing the impact of overdiagnosis.

Main Methods:

• Conceptual analysis of overdiagnosis in screening.
• Review of secondary prevention and diagnostic sensitivity.
• Exploration of challenges in differentiating clinically relevant diagnoses.

Main Results:

• Overdiagnosis is defined as detecting asymptomatic disease that would not have led to morbimortality.
• It is an inherent bias in screening programs and an undesired effect of improved diagnostic sensitivity.
• Distinguishing between clinically relevant and irrelevant diagnoses is challenging.

Conclusions:

• Overdiagnosis represents an inherent bias in screening programs.
• Improved diagnostic sensitivity can exacerbate overdiagnosis.
• Targeting screening towards high-risk populations can help minimize overdiagnosis.