Cancer screening rarely necessary?

Preventive examinations questioned by senior medical inspector

28/12/2013

The top German medical inspector questions the purpose of many cancer screening examinations. These are concerned with the economic interests of the doctors.

Economic interests of doctors
Germany's top medical examiner, Jürgen Windeler, has challenged the importance of many preventive medical check-ups. Among other things, the post-examination for prostate cancer, the regular general check-up and the skin cancer screening under scientific criteria are questionable, said the head of the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care „Berlin newspaper“. The preventive medical check-ups are also concerned with tangible economic interests of the doctors. This should be clear to the patients.

Prostate cancer screening from 50 years
Prostate cancer is the third most common cause of cancer death in men, with 11,000 deaths from the disease a year, in Germany. From the age of 50 years (in the case of high-risk patients 45 years of age), the statutory health insurance companies pay a provisional check-up for prostate cancer screening once a year as part of statutory cancer screening.

Managing Director of Cancer Aid advises on skin cancer screening
In Germany, from the age of 35, there is a claim to health insurance funded skin cancer screening every two years, and some statutory health insurance covers the costs for younger people. The Chief Executive of the German Cancer Aid, Gerd Nettekoven, advised a few months ago in an interview with the „New Osnabrück newspaper“ specifically to the skin cancer screenings, "as with an early diagnosis and treatment of skin cancer, the chances of treatment increase significantly". In this way "there is a good chance that even malignant malignant melanomas will still be detected in a treatable stage". (Ad)

Picture: Rainer Sturm