Private checks that aren’t worth it

IN THE world of medical diagnosis we sometimes use the phrase incidentaloma, a glib non-scientific term for finding an unexpected abnormality when carrying out tests for some other reason: we’re checking for one thing, only to find another.

I know of someone who recently had a health MOT, which included a colonoscopy, an examination of the bowel guided by a scan: this revealed cysts in her pancreas of a type likely to become cancerous. Prompt surgery avoided this.

Yet the value of health MOT screening tests such as these is controversial, not least if people have them done privately, and then arrive at their NHS GP with an abnormality that may not be a problem, i.e. they have no symptoms.

There are other concerns: new blood tests to detect tumour markers have proved disappointing, with false positives and false negatives — and yet you can get these as part of private health MOTs.

I would recommend evidencebased national screening programmes: those for cervical and breast cancers, and stool tests for colon cancer. And rather than private health MOTs, focus on prevention: maintain a healthy weight, eat healthily and exercise. There’s so much more to be gained.