ArticleMedicine, health care, and philosophy2019
Analysing the ethics of breast cancer overdiagnosis: a pathogenic vulnerability.
Article in Medicine, health care, and philosophy, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 11 citations in OpenAlex.
- Article
- [The precautionary principle in preventive actions: considerations on an absence].Cadernos de saude publica · 2026Article
- The Earlier, the Better? An In-Depth Interview Study on the Ethics of Early Detection with Parents of Children at an Elevated Likelihood for Autism.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2024Article
- [A conceptual framework for good preventive practices (or for quaternary prevention)].Cadernos de saude publica · 2024Article
- Risk, Overdiagnosis and Ethical Justifications.Health care analysis : HCA : journal of health philosophy and policy · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Breast cancer screening aims to help women by early identification and treatment of cancers that might otherwise be life-threatening. However, breast cancer screening also leads to the detection of some cancers that, if left undetected and untreated, would not have damaged the health of the women concerned. At the time of diagnosis, harmless cancers cannot be identified as non-threatening, therefore women are offered invasive breast cancer treatment. This phenomenon of identifying (and treating) non-harmful cancers is called overdiagnosis. Overdiagnosis is morally problematic as it leads to overall patient harm rather than benefit. Further, breast cancer screening is offered in a context that exaggerates cancer risk and screening benefit, minimises risk of harm and impedes informed choice. These factors combine to create pathogenic vulnerability. That is, breast cancer screening exacerbates rather than reduces women's vulnerability and undermines women's agency. This paper provides an original way of conceptualising agency-supporting responses to the harms of breast cancer overdiagnosis through application of the concept of pathogenic vulnerability.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.