The PDQ cancer information summaries are reviewed regularly and updated as new information becomes available. This section describes the latest changes made to this summary as of the date above.

Cancer Screening

Added text to state that a 2009 publication of preliminary results of a cancer screening project in Japan using multiple whole-body screening technologies illustrates clearly the problems of false-positive screening results and potential overdiagnosis (cited Nishizawa et al. as reference 3).

Added text about a project in Japan that enrolled 1,217 healthy volunteers aged 35 years and older for health check-ups, including chest x-ray, fecal occult blood testing, upper gastrointestinal series, and mammography screening for many years.

Added text to state that all participants were offered annual whole body screening by fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography, chest and abdominal computed tomography, brain and pelvic magnetic resonance imaging, analyses of serum tumor markers including carcinoembryonic antigen, cancer antigen 19-9, squamous cell carcinoma antigen, prostate specific antigen for men older than aged 50 years, cancer antigen 125 for women, and FOB testing.

Added text to state that a screen was classified positive if any test was suggestive of malignancy, and in these cases the subject was referred to a local hospital for further testing or retesting at the screening center; therefore interval cancer events were ascertained at subsequent screenings or by interview.

Added text to state that 22 primary cancers were pathologically confirmed, 19 by annual screening, and 18 at the initial screen.

Added text to state that the incidence of cancers found on the initial screen exceeded the estimated age-matched annual incidence of cancer in Japan by three to four times.

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