Screening for cancer is an important focus of cancer control. Yet screening, as it involves administering a test to large segments of the population deemed to be at risk for the disease of interest, is potentially a major consumer of scarce health care resources. In addition, the benefits sought from cancer screening, particularly reduction in mortality from the disease, are not always realized, either for biological or organizational reasons. Thus, the paradigm that early detection must always be beneficial', taught to health care professionals, and publicized widely through the media to the...

This 1991 publication was organized by the International Union Against Cancer (UICC), a leading agency in the field of cancer epidemiology and control.