Researchers at NYU Langone in New York City, Uppsala University & Karolinska Institute in Sweden and Sloane-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City examined approximately ten years of prostate cancer records from 100,000 Swedish patients. During the ten year period, unnecessary imaging decreased to 3 percent, down from 45 percent, following the implementation of a campaign involving imaging guideline reminders and presentations on local imaging statistics within hospitals.
Cancer scans for metastatic tumors detection in low-risk prostate patients in the United States are discouraged in policy, but physicians have not yet adopted the guidelines in practice. One of the study’s lead authors found in a preliminary study that inappropriate prostate imaging occurs between 22 and 62 percent of the time.
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