May 24, 2022

In a new editorial in New England Journal of Medicine Evidence, H. Gilbert Welch, MD, MPH and Adewole S. Adamson, MD, MPP, discuss the pros and cons of differentiating recommendations for cancer screening based on race and whether more resources should be put towards addressing social determinants of health instead. This editorial follows previous works exploring the consequences of cancer overscreening, including increased health system costs with little change in health outcomes, artificial increases in expected survival rates, and over-investment in cancer screening at the detriment of public health expenditures.