On Wednesday 15th March, Dr Liddell will be a panellist at the Cambridge Science Festival Early Detection event 'Is earlier necessarily better?'.
Further details can be found here.
Panellists will discuss the following sorts of issues: Of course it is beneficial in many situations to detect cancer earlier. But when is it not necessarily better? What issues are contentious amongst scientists? Does 'watchful waiting' work? What are the legal implications of failing to detect cancer as early as possible? Or detecting it early but the patient cannot be helped and instead suffers years of worry? Is it ethical to offer or insist upon population screening for early detection of cancer which saves several lives but causes stress and worry for hundreds, and leads some to have unnecessary surgical interventions? Who decides the acceptability of controversial population health screens? What say to members of the public have?