NBC晚间新闻 近距离观察癌症（在线收听）

Taking a closer look at the word ‘cancer’

近距离观察癌症

A panel of experts at the National Cancer Institute is recommending

doctors change the way they diagnose and treat some types of disease

that have little or no chance of being lethal. NBC’s Dr. Nancy

Snyderman reports.

美国国家癌症研究所的一群专家推荐医生改变诊断和治疗某些几乎不致命的疾病

的方法。NBC的Nancy Snyderman博士报道。

Good evening. Our lead story comes from the world of medicine.

It's about cancer, and it's about changing how we refer to it,

changing our definition of it. In part, it's about the minor stuff,

the comparatively smaller things discovered during screenings giving

them different names, making them a lot less scary. A panel of this

nation's top doctors now says even the word cancer is often misused.

They warn not all cancers are alike, not all are deadly so they

shouldn't be treated or talked about the same way. In plain English,

they want to stop wasting time, money and worry and concentrate on

what's important. It's where we begin here tonight with our medical

editor Dr. Nancy Snyderman. This is important stuff.

It is. Good evening, Brian. For many in the cancer world today's

step is long overdue in making the diagnosis and treatment of cancer

smarter and more cost effective. Turn the page of any dictionary, land

on the letter "C" and find one of the most frightening words no one

wants to hear, cancer. This one word carries a loaded and complex

meaning for millions of Americans every year. A panel of experts

advising the National Cancer Institute is recommending an about face

in the way doctors diagnose and treat some types of the disease that

have little or no chance of being lethal. In fact, the group is even

taking a closer look at what the word cancer means in some instances.

For example, in women the diagnosis ductal carcinoma in situ is a non

-lethal breast disease that should not be called cancer.

Whenever something is called carcinoma or cancer people immediately

want to act, and the reality is we should be watching them as opposed

to aggressively treating.

66-year-old Rue Harris wishes he had taken a conservative approach

to a possible prostate cancer diagnosis a few years ago. A high PSA

level had him and his doctor worried he might have the disease which

can be slow growing. He got a biopsy which came back normal, but that

process wasted his money, the health care system 's money, not to

mention costing him lost time and anxiety.

I spent that whole year between the first biopsy and the second

biopsy preparing to die. I wasn't enjoying living. I was scared of the

possibility that I might have cancer, and that I would die.

reporter: The organs most overtested for cancer, this panel says,

include thyroid, breast, prostate and lung.

Today's announcement is hopefully a big step in a long process.

some of these lesions are not aggressive and actually don't need to be

treated and can be watched.

Will there be some pushback? You bet there will, but there is no

smoking gun. Not an attempt to get insurance companies not to cover

people. It's to make our medical system work smarter for us, and the

next thing I think, Brian, we'll have to stop defining cancers by

organ systems and recognize that cancer of the lung has some

properties in common with other cancers like of the prostate and ovary

and start to treat them with regard to their genetics.

So it's about language, yes, but also prioritizing in what's become

a test-crazy nation.

Exactly. I mean, if you start CT scanning and MRI scanning everybody,

you're going to start seeing things that aren't normal. Does that mean

you should take everything out and treating people? The answer is no.

We know we waste one-third of our medical expenditures on things that

aren't worth chasing or aren't worth treating, and you know what? We

hurt people in the process. So the smarter we make this, the better we

make it.

That's why today was so impactful. Nancy, thank you as always.