Drop the C-word to reduce anxiety and over-treatment, say experts

Medical researchers are calling for the word 'cancer' to be dropped from some doctor-patient conversations in a bid to reduce patient anxiety and harm from over-treatment.

Time to stop telling people with low risk conditions that they have ‘cancer’ if they are unlikely to be harmed it.

The appeal in today’s BMJ follows mounting evidence that patients who are told they have “cancer” for low risk conditions more often choose surgery than those whose condition is described with terms such as “lesions” or “abnormal cells”.

“There is a growing body of evidence that describing a condition using more medicalised labels, including the use of the term ‘cancer’, can lead to an increased preference for more invasive treatments,” says Professor Kirsten McCaffery of the University of Sydney who co-authored the BMJ analysis with colleagues from Bond University and the Mayo Clinic in the US.

“This supports calls to remove the cancer label, where it is appropriate.”

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