Screen-detected cancers characteristically include a disproportionate share of slow-growing, less aggressive tumors compared with cancers presenting clinically between screening rounds. This distortion is known as:

• A Neyman's bias
• B Lead time bias
• C Length bias ✓
• D Publication bias

Explanation

Rapidly growing tumors surface clinically in the interval between screens, while indolent tumors linger long enough to be caught by the next round. The screened group is therefore enriched with better-prognosis lesions independent of any true treatment benefit; this overrepresentation of slowly progressive disease is length bias. Neyman's bias is prevalence-incidence bias arising from studying survivors of an episode.

Reference: Park's Textbook of Preventive and Social Medicine, 26th ed.

High-yield for: NEET PGINI-CETNExTFMGEUSMLEPLABMRCP

Written and medically reviewed by the StethoPrep medical team.