简介:Cancerscreeningisasourceofmuchdebate.Attheinterfacebetweenpublichealth,specialistcare,economicsandpolicy,itcreatestensionsbetweenprofessionalgroups,politicians,themediaandthepublic.Ascreeningtestmaybecheap,butapplyingittoapopulation(withrigorousqualitycontrolandeffectiveprocessingofpatientswithabnormalresults)createsahugeworkloadandthereforecost.Screeningcanalsohavepsychologicaleffectsonindividualswithfalse-positiveresultswhorequireinvestigationbutareeventuallyfoundnottohavecancer.
简介:Ithabeenknownforsometimethatsometumourshavetheabilitytoproducaehormones.Thishastraditionallybeentermed‘ectopic'hormoneproduction,butwiththeincreasingsensitivityofmodenmoleculartechniques,ithasbecomeclearthatthisisamisnomer;manytissuescanproducehormoner,andnormallydosoatlowlevels,thehormonesactinglocallyascytokinesinaparacrinemanner.Intumours,bymechanismsthatremainunclear,productionofthesehormonesand/orincompletelyprocessedprecursorsisinereased,andthetem‘eutopic’productionismoreappropriate.