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Cancer
Mammograms – An Outdated and Painful Procedure
Date: 19/03/10
According to the Cochrane report, health officials are dramatically downplaying the risks of mammography X-rays while overstating the benefits. The report also questions the prevailing view that mammograms save lives and says that this is based on shoddy and biased science.
There’s no disputing the fact that modern medicine has made some terrific advances. Surgery definitely counts as one of them in treating serious health conditions such as strokes and heart attacks and can literally be a lifesaver as a form of emergency treatment for potentially fatal complications like these.
However, in other respects it remains backward science.
Why modern medicine still chooses to cling to a painful and risky procedure like mammography, is a mystery. Mounting evidence is challenging the validity and safety of mammograms in breast cancer prevention.
A different set of facts
A damning report from the Cochrane Collaboration - an independent and prestigious international research organization - revealed that women are being seriously misled by health officials in the way that facts about this treatment are presented.
According to the Cochrane report, health officials are dramatically downplaying the risks of mammography X-rays while overstating the benefits. The report also questions the prevailing view that mammograms save lives and says that this is based on shoddy and biased science.
The report also found:
* Mammography can save one in 2000 women screened, or half the official number that is so often quoted by doctors in the UK. This contradicts the statistics offered by Cancer Research UK, which estimates that mammograms can detect seven cancers in every 1000 women screened.
* Mammograms are carcinogenic because they use X-ray technology. It's estimated that mammograms can cause breast cancer in one out of every 25,000 women screened. This suggests that the procedure can trigger 80 new cases of breast cancer in the UK and around 1480 new cases in the US, every year.
* A study which tracked 2400 women aged 40-69 years showed that the rate of false positives increases with the number of times a woman is screened. By the time that a woman has had 10 treatments, the rate of false positives for her could be as high as 64 per cent.
* Screenings can also produce false negatives. In other words, they can fail to detect cancer that is present. Overall, mammograms miss around 20 per cent of cancers in the breast.
The Cochrane researchers concluded that there is no evidence that suggests mammograms are safe, reliable, effective and save lives.
These controversial findings are based on seven studies involving 600,000 women and were judged to be unbiased and truly scientific by the researchers.
Genetics no longer thought to play a big role...
There is growing evidence to suggest that a family history of cancer is no longer linked to an increased risk of getting cancer.
Researchers at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund's Cancer Epidemiology Unit, Oxford, in the UK, say that most women with a family history of breast cancer will never develop the disease. Conversely, women who do have breast cancer don't have a close relative with the disease.
Mammography screening targets women who fall into one of three categories:
1. Women older than 50
2. Women with a family history of breast cancer
3. Women with a genetic predisposition to breast cancer.
If a woman is younger than 50 and falls within any of the last two categories, she may begin screening from the age of 30.
Explaining the alternatives
Mammograms are promoted as one of the only defences against a disease most women fear more than any other. Yet, most cancers detected by mammograms are slow-growing, benign and not life threatening, and probably will go into remission spontaneously. Paradoxically mammograms cannot detect the fast-growing and aggressive cancers that are almost always fatal. So, what are women saved from? Cancers that are fatal to their health; or cancers that aren't?
In addition, many women are in agony simply thinking about the tremendous pain this treatment inflicts.
When Cochrane researchers explored 27 websites run by health agencies or patient groups that are funded by the government, they found that these websites played down the risks of mammography and even made light of the procedure itself.
Mammograms are often painful as they involve compressing the breast between two plates. Yet, despite this both the American Cancer Society and Cancer Research UK websites claim that patients 'should not feel any pain'.
Breast cancer is clearly an emotive issue and rightfully so, with 1 million new diagnoses made every year globally. This is precisely why women should be clearly informed about the risks and benefits of this procedure and also know how these weigh up against each other. This procedure should not be a hard and fast sell as the only preventative treatment available.
Fortunately, there are less invasive and safer alternatives to mammograms, like thermographs. Perhaps the time has come for this technology to be further developed and embraced as part of a solution to a disease which is a growing health concern for all women.
To read more about thermographs, follow this link:
Thermography a Safe and Very Effective Alternative to Mammograms
Sources:
J R Soc Med 2010; 103: 14-20
www.cancerhelp.co.uk
New England Journal of Medicine, 1998;338: 1089-96
Archives of Internal Medicine, 2009; 151: 716-26
Cochrane Database System Review. 2009; 4: CD001877; doi: 10.1002
Back to topHowever, in other respects it remains backward science.
Why modern medicine still chooses to cling to a painful and risky procedure like mammography, is a mystery. Mounting evidence is challenging the validity and safety of mammograms in breast cancer prevention.
A different set of facts
A damning report from the Cochrane Collaboration - an independent and prestigious international research organization - revealed that women are being seriously misled by health officials in the way that facts about this treatment are presented.
According to the Cochrane report, health officials are dramatically downplaying the risks of mammography X-rays while overstating the benefits. The report also questions the prevailing view that mammograms save lives and says that this is based on shoddy and biased science.
The report also found:
* Mammography can save one in 2000 women screened, or half the official number that is so often quoted by doctors in the UK. This contradicts the statistics offered by Cancer Research UK, which estimates that mammograms can detect seven cancers in every 1000 women screened.
* Mammograms are carcinogenic because they use X-ray technology. It's estimated that mammograms can cause breast cancer in one out of every 25,000 women screened. This suggests that the procedure can trigger 80 new cases of breast cancer in the UK and around 1480 new cases in the US, every year.
* A study which tracked 2400 women aged 40-69 years showed that the rate of false positives increases with the number of times a woman is screened. By the time that a woman has had 10 treatments, the rate of false positives for her could be as high as 64 per cent.
* Screenings can also produce false negatives. In other words, they can fail to detect cancer that is present. Overall, mammograms miss around 20 per cent of cancers in the breast.
The Cochrane researchers concluded that there is no evidence that suggests mammograms are safe, reliable, effective and save lives.
These controversial findings are based on seven studies involving 600,000 women and were judged to be unbiased and truly scientific by the researchers.
Genetics no longer thought to play a big role...
There is growing evidence to suggest that a family history of cancer is no longer linked to an increased risk of getting cancer.
Researchers at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund's Cancer Epidemiology Unit, Oxford, in the UK, say that most women with a family history of breast cancer will never develop the disease. Conversely, women who do have breast cancer don't have a close relative with the disease.
Mammography screening targets women who fall into one of three categories:
1. Women older than 50
2. Women with a family history of breast cancer
3. Women with a genetic predisposition to breast cancer.
If a woman is younger than 50 and falls within any of the last two categories, she may begin screening from the age of 30.
Explaining the alternatives
Mammograms are promoted as one of the only defences against a disease most women fear more than any other. Yet, most cancers detected by mammograms are slow-growing, benign and not life threatening, and probably will go into remission spontaneously. Paradoxically mammograms cannot detect the fast-growing and aggressive cancers that are almost always fatal. So, what are women saved from? Cancers that are fatal to their health; or cancers that aren't?
In addition, many women are in agony simply thinking about the tremendous pain this treatment inflicts.
When Cochrane researchers explored 27 websites run by health agencies or patient groups that are funded by the government, they found that these websites played down the risks of mammography and even made light of the procedure itself.
Mammograms are often painful as they involve compressing the breast between two plates. Yet, despite this both the American Cancer Society and Cancer Research UK websites claim that patients 'should not feel any pain'.
Breast cancer is clearly an emotive issue and rightfully so, with 1 million new diagnoses made every year globally. This is precisely why women should be clearly informed about the risks and benefits of this procedure and also know how these weigh up against each other. This procedure should not be a hard and fast sell as the only preventative treatment available.
Fortunately, there are less invasive and safer alternatives to mammograms, like thermographs. Perhaps the time has come for this technology to be further developed and embraced as part of a solution to a disease which is a growing health concern for all women.
To read more about thermographs, follow this link:
Thermography a Safe and Very Effective Alternative to Mammograms
Sources:
J R Soc Med 2010; 103: 14-20
www.cancerhelp.co.uk
New England Journal of Medicine, 1998;338: 1089-96
Archives of Internal Medicine, 2009; 151: 716-26
Cochrane Database System Review. 2009; 4: CD001877; doi: 10.1002
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