Screening and Surveillance Bias in Cancer

Stefano Tancredi; Stéphane Cullati; Arnaud Chiolero

doi:10.3390/epidemiologia4020012

Screening and Surveillance Bias in Cancer

Epidemiologia (Basel). 2023 Mar 24;4(2):117-120. doi: 10.3390/epidemiologia4020012.

Authors

Stefano Tancredi¹, Stéphane Cullati^{1

2}, Arnaud Chiolero^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ Population Health Laboratory (#PopHealthLab), University of Fribourg, 1700 Fribourg, Switzerland.
² Department of Readaptation and Geriatrics, University of Geneva, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland.
³ School of Population and Global Health, McGill University, Montréal, QC H3A 1G1, Canada.

Abstract

Surveillance bias arises when differences in the frequency of a condition are due to changes in the modality of detection rather than to a difference in the actual risk of the condition. This bias hampers the surveillance of scrutiny-dependent cancers, leading to misinterpretations of cancer trends, risk factor identification, and, consequently, to the wrong public health actions.

Keywords: cancer; cancer risk factors; cancer surveillance; surveillance bias.

Grants and funding

This research received no external funding.