Screening Mammograms continue to draw criticism, especially for women under 50. Despite plenty of evidence to the contrary, public health policy makers continue to insist that getting a mammogram is the same as taking care of yourself, and that exposing breast tissues to ionizing radiation is cancer prevention. Worse yet, evidence is mounting that routine screening - and subsequent biopsies and treatments - is turning non-aggressive or "latent" cancers (especially ductal carcinoma in situ) into aggressive, life-threatening cancers.
If your doctor insists you have a mammogram, remember: Radiation damage is cumulative. The more mammograms you have, the more likely you are to initiate cancer, just as the more you're in the sun, the more likely you are to get skin cancer. Even if you've already had a mammogram, even if you've had a biopsy, you can choose to say "no" to mammograms and care for your breasts the Wise Woman Way.
"Mammography is especially likely to miss the [aggressive] tumors that do the most harm."
Of 429 breast cancers diagnosed over five years in Puget Sound, 279 were picked up by mammography, and most were in the earliest stage. Of the 150 that were missed, most were so fast growing that, although they didn't exist at the time of one yearly mammogram, they had progressed to lymph-node-involvement before the next yearly mammogram.
"The Picture Problem" Malcolm Gladwell, The New Yorker, December 13, 2004.
"The risks associated with over-diagnosis and over-treatment are significant enough to make avoiding mammography a reasonable choice for women without breast symptoms."
After screening mammography was begun in Norway, breast cancer diagnosis increased by 54%. In Sweden the increase was 45%. There has been no corresponding long-term reduction in the rate of women diagnosed. "The significance of these findings is this: Mammography causes many women to be diagnosed and treated for a type of breast cancer that would never produce symptoms or become life threatening if left undetected."
"Breast Screening Finds Many Cancers That Would Never be Lethal." HealthFacts from the Center for Medical Consumers, April 2004.
"There are certain calcifications ... that are always benign ... [and some that] are always associated with cancer. But ... the vast amount are in the middle and making that differentiation ... is not clear cut." David Dershaw, head of breast-imaging, Memorial Sloan Kettering.
Computer-aided mammograms may improve the doctors' bottom line, but they do nothing for women. A medical practice that does 60,000 mammograms would generate more than $650,000 in extra income by adding computer-aided detection, but this would cause "no discernible improvement in accuracy nor improved outcomes for the women screened."
