---
title: "Overdiagnosis"
chunk: 3/3
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overdiagnosis"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:31:30.416283+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

=== Removing cancer from names of low-risk diagnoses ===
It has been proposed that some conditions that are indolent (i.e., unlikely to cause appreciable harm during the patient's lifetime) should have the words "cancer" or "carcinoma" removed from their accepted/preferred medical name. Such a proposal is to name conditions as indolent lesions of epithelial origin or IDLE.

== Medical complexity ==
If a person is medically complex (multiple comorbidities) and may expect to live for less than ten years, then there may be a net harm (benefit less harm) in diagnosing and treating one or more of their morbidities, eg prostate cancer. The principal, however, can apply to all cancers and other illnesses.

== See also ==
Disease mongering – Pejorative term for expanding a disease's market for treatment
False positive – Types of error in data reportingPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
Medicalization – Categorization of human problems as medical
Interventionism (medicine)
Patient education – Teaching or training of patients concerning their own health needs
Schooliosis – Misdiagnosis of scoliosis
Screening (medicine) – Brief medical evaluation to detect unnoticed health problems

== References ==

== Further reading ==
Welch, H. Gilbert, Schwartz, Lisa. Overdiagnosed: Making People Sick in the Pursuit of Health. Beacon Press; 2011-01-18. ISBN 9780807022009.