Researchers estimated Wednesday that mammograms caused more than 1 million American women over the past three decades to be diagnosed with early-stage breast cancers that would not have proved fatal if left undetected and untreated — a controversial finding sure to provoke more heated debate over the benefits of the screenings.
The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, concluded that these women were “overdiagnosed” and “overtreated” because few lives were saved.
Comments
What's with this website? I posted a comment half an hour ago and now it has simply disappeared.
The Globe censor did not agree with the views expressed in your posting. It is called censorship except when is done by members of the 4th estate then it is labeled editorial discretion.
Science (and medicine) is like a dogmatic religion that punishes those who challenge it's belief systems.
So what is the point of this research? That we should let some women die of breast cancer so that other women aren't upset by false positives and so that we don't waste money on treatment resulting from false positives? Welcome to the brave new world of ObamaCare.
Obviously the costs of testing are disproportionate to the yield of cure. (The reason you know it is money that is behind this,is that the article doesn't mention costs.) Why not just test every three years instead of every year? It would cut the costs by two thirds. It has been done with pap smears. Women would just have to answer this question correctly: Would you rather discover the breast cancer/cervical cancer the first year you had it? or the third year? A very simple question and almost everybody then wants it done annually.
Th NY Times has a much more critical analysis of the over diagnosis problem. IMHO Once again arrogant medical practicioners refuse to allow the patient to have all the information necessary to make an informed decision. Breast cancer is a disease with both physical and mental impacts. Instead of harping on he number of mamograms, the scientific community should derive techniques and protocols to maximize accurate detection while minimizing false positives.