American Cancer Society Taking Heat for Comments

The American Cancer Society (ACS) has been feeling some heat lately after its chief medical officer, Dr. Otis Brawley, told a New York Times reporter that the benefits of screening tests for breast, prostate, and other cancers had been "exaggerated".

Dr. Brawley's comments were given in regard to a recent Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) article that raised doubts about the effectiveness of cancer screening. The ACS is in the middle of a revision of their collective statement regarding cancer screening tests.

Many people would be surprised to learn that, on many large questions within medicine, there is no strong consensus among doctors or even among all of the major medical organizations. For instance, the ACS, the American Urological Association (AUA), the American Medical Association (AMA), and several other groups that deal with prostate cancer do not completely agree on recommendations for prostate cancer screening.

You can read more about the pros and cons of prostate cancer screening here.