The Choosing Wisely list, which has been drawn up by the Academy’s member royal colleges and faculties including The Royal College of Pathologists, details advice to both patients and doctors for treating health related issues.

Dr Lance Sandle, Vice-President, The Royal College of Pathologists: 

“Some tests are not always necessary and can cause needless anxiety and distress.

Men are more likely to die with prostate cancer than from it. Screening for Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) can find slow-growing cancer that may never cause symptoms or shorten life.

The tests and treatments that often follow after a positive diagnosis can be invasive and have undesirable side effects. 

We would like to see open conversations between patients and doctors. This will enable patients to make informed, evidence-based choices that will result in the best outcome for them, even if that means patients deciding not to have certain tests or treatments.”