Look at the thyroid cancer graph: over twenty years the detection rate has increased by about 15x without any concomitant decrease in mortality. With any diagn

Look at the thyroid cancer graph: over twenty years the detection rate has increased by about 15x without any concomitant decrease in mortality. With any diagnostic measure, you must ask whether the information it produces is actionable. If anything, they way you've phrased it is backward: first we find a new treatment (via research) and once it gives us an action to perform, then we can justify the screening. If catching a cancer earlier helps, screen. If not (prostate or breast screenings too early in life), don't. Obviously if you have family history, risk factors, or something with high specificity like a BRCA mutation, you treat. But many of those things are discovered with a simple history/physical (H&P), which is the important screening your primary physician should be performing.