With Routine Mammograms, Some Breast Cancers May Be Overtreated
The limitless debate over regular mammograms is getting another kick from an analysis that greatly questions whether the test really does exactly what it's supposed to. Dr. H. Gilbert Welch, coauthor of the analysis of mammography's impact, which was just released in The New England Journal of Medicine, tell Shots that the purpose was to "get down to a very basic question.". That is, do annual mammograms amongst women over 40 find early-stage breast cancers that can be dealt with so that they never ever become deadlier late-stage tumors? Over the last trio of decades, diagnoses of early-stage breast cancers rose, largely due to regular mammogram screening. But the incidence of late-stage cancers decreased only somewhat. That leads some to question whether mammograms are really doing exactly what they're supposed to-- catching early cancers prior to they proceed.
Keywords:
breast cancer mammography mammogram late-stage cancer breast cancer treatment Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center oregon health and science university early-stage cancer prostate cancer Dartmouth Medical School million women tumors New York City Archie Bleyer genetic predisposition coauthor lower risk ductal carcinoma diagnostic test San Francisco New England analysis bias debates Health overdiagnosis questions mind-set Sloan-Kettering radiologists dilemma situ hormones shock surgeon stable Radiology Carol helpful radiation main those things specialist No other Connecticut just fine surgery basic paper emailPeople:
Dr. H. Gilbert Welch
Overall Sentiment: -0.153008
Relevance: 0.410815
| Sentiment | Quote |
|---|---|
| -0.359606 | "And what we see is a dramatic increase — a doubling — in the amount of early-stage cancer," Welch says. ... |
| -0.176087 | "And what we see is a dramatic increase — a doubling — in the amount of early-stage cancer," Welch says. "But we don't see a corresponding decrease in the amount of late-stage cancer." |
| -0.221017 | "overdiagnosis." Welch says more than 1 million women have been overdiagnosed with breast cancer over the past 30 years. And the problem continues. "Seventy thousand women a year are overdiagnosed and treated unnecessarily for breast cancer," Welch says. ... |
| 0.303026 | "Why was breast cancer incidence so stable in the late '70s, only to shoot up in the 1980s — the very time mammography was introduced?" he writes ... |
| 0.302611 | "Why was breast cancer incidence so stable in the late '70s, only to shoot up in the 1980s — the very time mammography was introduced?" he writes in an email. "Why didn't incidence rise dramatically in women under 40 — those not exposed to screening?" |
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Dr. Carol Lee
Overall Sentiment: -0.139569
Relevance: 0.309896
| Sentiment | Quote |
|---|---|
| 0 | "Whenever I see a paper like this, I say, 'Oh, boy, here we go again!' " says Dr. Carol Lee, ... |
| -0.0425232 | "He has a pre-existing bias, just as those of us in the breast-imaging community have a pre-existing bias," Lee says. ... |
| 0 | "He has a pre-existing bias, just as those of us in the breast-imaging community have a pre-existing bias," Lee says. "The truth probably lies somewhere in between." |
| 0.0563883 | "What my friends in Connecticut want to know is, 'Should I have a screening mammogram?' And ... this kind of study sometimes raises more questions than it answers," Lee says. ... |
| -0.438866 | "Our concept of cancer has got to change," she tells ... |
| 0.0183084 | "Our concept of cancer has got to change," she tells Shots. "We now recognize that there isn't just one pathway — it's not cancer, yes or no." |
| -0.0154104 | "We can watch a lot of those things and most of them turn out to be just fine," she says. ... |
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Laura Esserman
Overall Sentiment: 0
Relevance: 0.153052
Dr. Archie Bleyer
Overall Sentiment: 0.493593
Relevance: 0.143763
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Additional Info:
HealthCondition: breast cancer
Overall Sentiment: 0.0741783
Relevance: 0.875295
Disambiguation: DiseaseOrMedicalCondition | CauseOfDeath | RiskFactor | DiseaseReferences:
HealthCondition: tumors
Overall Sentiment: 0.0415496
Relevance: 0.338941
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Source URL: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/11/21/165668987/with-routine-mammograms-some-breast-cancers-may-be-overtreated?ft=1&f=1027
The last three decades have seen a dramatic increase in early-stage, but not late-stage, breast cancers, as mammography has become routine. Some researchers are concerned that women are being treated for cancers that would never turn deadly.
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With Routine Mammograms, Some Breast Cancers May Be Overtreated
Source URL: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/11/21/165668987/with-routine-mammograms-some-breast-cancers-may-be-overtreated?ft=1&f=1027
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