A new study states that mammograms do NOT lower the risk of dying from breast cancer. An article by two Danish researchers, Dr. Peter Gotzsche, and Ole Olsen, of the Nordic Cochrane Center in Copenhagen, published in the October 20th issue of The Lancet, challenged assumptions about mammograms, calling previous studies "flawed." The scientists analyzed seven major studies which "proved" that women having regular mammograms had a lower risk of dying of breast cancer. These studies, Gotzsche and Olson concluded, did not meet the requirements of scientific standards and were unreliable.
New research from Canada and Sweden backs up Gotzsche and Olsen's results.
They have shown that women having mammograms regularly, had NO lower risk of
dying of breast cancer than did women who not having mammograms.
American medical providers have been telling women for decades, that
after the age of 50, they should have a mammogram yearly or bi-yearly because
regular mammograms cut the risk of dying of breast cancer by 30 percent.
Mammograms, the researchers' analysis suggested, do not prevent women from
dying of breast cancer, nor do they prevent mastectomies.
Specifically, the researchers found:
* While it is often asserted that early detection spares patients more aggressive treatments, screening results in over-diagnosis, which has led to a 20% increase in mastectomies and a 30% increase in the removal of tumors (tumorectomies).
* Mammograms not only pick up slow-growing tumors, but also identify cell changes that under a microscope look like cancer, but are biologically benign. As a result, doctors may have aggressively treated something that may have gone unnoticed during the women's lifetime.
(I have personally known several women who came out "suspiciously"
on a mammogram who a biopsy showed, did not have breast cancer but a
benign condition.)
The response of the American medical providers to this announcement is similar to
how they responded to the first announcements that estrogen in the birth
control pill was CAUSING breast cancer. "We have no plans at this
point to change the national guidelines that have been in place for more than
20 years," says Dr. Peter Greenwald, the director of NCI's division of
cancer prevention in Bethesda, Md. Greenwald admitted that he KNEW ABOUT
the flaws in the seven studies upon which the American medical providers base the assumption that regular
mammograms are helpful but as he told the press, "we don't think there is
enough information to cause us to change our minds."
Read that as "we hope to heck the American women won't stop buying mammograms because it's a real cash cow". That seven major studies have been debunked AND that new research from Canada and Sweden (which may NOT be as subject to pharmaceutical company influence as the United States) agrees, is enough information for me to say "no" to mammograms even though this might hurt the revenue of some American medical providers!
Article by Sue Widemark
Re-print permission granted as long as credit is given (give my website link!) :)
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http://www.healthatoz.com/atoz/healthupdate/Alert12202001.html