We have all been conditioned to believe that mammograms save lives and that they are part of every woman over the age of 49's annual duty. Women have been led to believe that getting a mammogram is the best proactive way to prevent breast cancer. But is it?
STUDY: MAMMOGRAMS DO NOT REDUCE BREAST CANCER MORTALITY
According to one of the largest and longest studies ever conducted on mammograms, where 90,000 women were observed over the course of 25 years, annual mammograms had no impact on breast cancer mortality. What is even more concerning is that the same study found that 22% of mammogram detected as "invasive breast cancers" were false positives and resulted in unnecessary treatment. This means that 106 woman in the study who were screened were given chemotherapy, radiation, surgery, or a combination of these !!
MAMMOGRAMS RESULTED IN A 30% INCREASE IN UNNECESSARY TREATMENTS
In a 2009 Meta Analysis researchers found that mammogram screenings caused a 30% rate of over diagnosis and unnecessary treatment. Using the study's data, for every 2,000 women who are screened using a mammogram, only 1 will not die from breast cancer, while 10 healthy women will be incorrectly diagnosed with breast cancer and unnecessarily treated for it.
MAMMOGRAMS ONLY SAVED 0.0024 OF THOSE SCREENED !!
HIGHER RATE OF BREAST CANCER IN THOSE SCREENED MORE OFTEN
A Swedish Study that was published in 2011 in The Lancet Oncology concluded that a 4 year incidence of invasive breast cancer was significantly higher in the screened group (982 per 100,000) than it was in the control group (658 per 100,000).
Not only have annual mammograms shown to NOT reduce mortality from breast cancer, but they have resulted in unnecessary life threatening treatments for cancer (radiation, chemotherapy, and surgery) which can ironically increase the rates of cancer. Further more some data has shown a higher rate of breast cancer in those who were screened more often.
Sources
Twenty five year follow-up for breast cancer incidence and mortality of the Canadian National Breast Screening Study: randomized screening trial.
Screening for breast cancer with mammography.
Effect of screening mammography on breast-cancer mortality in Norway.
Natural history of breast cancers detected in the Swedish mammography screening programme
Disclaimer
This blog is for educational purposes only. Nothing written here is meant to cure, treat, or prevent any disease. These statements have not been approved by the FDA
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