Advanced cancer patients get unneeded tests for malignancies, study finds

Patients with advanced incurable cancer are still routinely screened for additional types of malignancies, causing anxiety and no benefit for most, researchers said.

About 9 percent of women in the study age 65 and older, who were expected to live less than two years because of advanced cancer, still received at least one mammogram, the study found. About 15 percent of men with advanced disease also had prostate cancer screenings, according to the research published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association found.