Screening and Surveillance Bias in Cancer

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

• surveillance bias
• cancer
• cancer risk factors
• cancer surveillance