Interesting research on the over diagnosis of breast 'cancer' due to mammograms

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The biggest issue is the number of women treated with toxic drugs, surgery and radiation due to fear of lawsuits (and for the woman, fear of death).

In addition, mammography has such a high sue-rate that doctors add more tests to protect themselves. And who can blame them?

It's such a double-edged sword.

I just stay away from the scam.

I have posted skepticism of mammograms (though I also pointed out that breast MRIs are an excellent tool for women with dense breasts) but I can't abide the conspiracy theories here. The toxic drugs, surgery and radiation saved my life when I was diagnosed with stage II breast cancer. The treatments suck but for most women they work and they're the best we have. And the only reason we have them at all is because of the breast cancer movement started in the 1970s by WOMEN themselves who were sick of the fact that there were no effective treatments available, just, essentially, the luck of the drawer.

[Anonymous]

Draw.

[Anonymous]

(HealthDay News) -- As many as one of every four breast tissue biopsies tested for cancer may have been incorrectly diagnosed by pathologists taking part in a study to test their skills.

The pathologists did well at identifying invasive breast cancer, but they struggled with spotting whether abnormal cells in a tissue sample might increase a woman's future cancer risk. This may mean that some women are being treated too aggressively, the researchers noted.

Overall, individual pathologists peering at breast cells through a microscope disagreed about 25 percent of the time with an expert pathology panel's interpretation of the same glass slides.

These bad calls could have serious consequences for some of the 1.6 million American women who undergo a breast biopsy each year, the researchers added.

The accurate diagnosis of cancer hinges on pathologists' microscopic examination of tissue samples from patients, explained study author Dr. Joann Elmore, a professor of medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Women with a wrongly interpreted biopsy might undergo unnecessary surgery or radiation therapy, receive unwarranted MRIs or mammograms, or spend many anxious years fretting that they are at increased risk for cancer when they actually are not, Elmore said.

http://www.wfmj.com/story/28542700/study-questions-accuracy-of-many-breast-cancer-biopsies
Well this is not good.

[Anonymous]

I think you have to look at your own family history (is there a strong family history of death from BC? Do you carry the BRAC gene). And then you have to look at the treatment options. Surgery, radiation, chemo, hormonal treatments all have the potential to effect your quality of life today and may not extend your life (at least from what I've read).

I do not have the answers. I wish that things were clearer...

[Anonymous]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/28/magazine/our-feel-good-war-on-breast-cancer.html

Here is an article about this. It seems that a lot of the "survivors' marching have only survived a cancer that was never a cancer. There are many kinds of breast cancer and the invasive ones that are the most fatal do not respond well to treatment. Sadly.

[Anonymous]

There is a huge financial motive for doctors to do a chemo treatment on someone with a stage 0 cancer. lot of $$$, little risk. Big reward -- you're cured!

[Anonymous]

How do you get your doc to agree to a breast MRI if nothing abnormal is there? I have dense breasts and have had a few call-backs and decided aftr the last one that mammogram doesn't make sense for me. Should I push to get yearly/bi-yearly breast MRI instead?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How do you get your doc to agree to a breast MRI if nothing abnormal is there? I have dense breasts and have had a few call-backs and decided aftr the last one that mammogram doesn't make sense for me. Should I push to get yearly/bi-yearly breast MRI instead?

If a doctor doesn't demonstrate my best interests, I'd get another one. They're fighting for business here where we have so many of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: There is a huge financial motive for doctors to do a chemo treatment on someone with a stage 0 cancer. lot of $$$, little risk. Big reward -- you're cured!

I agree. It is a huge scam. Cancer or so called cancer is a huge money maker.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: There is a huge financial motive for doctors to do a chemo treatment on someone with a stage 0 cancer. lot of $$$, little risk. Big reward -- you're cured!

I agree. It is a huge scam. Cancer or so called cancer is a huge money maker.

It's true. They even fight among themselves, what can qualify as cancer.

[Anonymous]

It is not a scam to try to find a cure for cancer. Cancer kills.

[Anonymous]

OMG, so much misinformation. It is not true that most invasive breast cancers are fatal. Most are not, but certainly metastatic cancers are. Most women who get breast cancer do NOT have a family history -- myself included -- and you should not rely on that when making choices about screening unless its to increase your screening because you have a family history. Not having one does not mean you are safe. As for cancer being a scam, then what explains the funerals I've been to? Did those people so-called die?

[Anonymous]

Most women I know dutifully go each year for their mammogram. Most women I know also drink alcohol fairly regularly, are overweight, and eat a lot of junk and too few fruits and vegetables. Too much emphasis on early detection and pink ribbon campaigns and not nearly enough prevention, IMHO.

[Anonymous]

Bunch of whacko conspiracy theorists here! Wow! Plus, do I detect sock puppeting?

Early detection is key. Should we all just sit back and not do self exams and mammograms and wait til the cancer is so big that it is now metastatic? Best to treat, remove, etc to the tumor before it gets so big that you are truly at the point of no return.

Instead of blaming oncologists for the high cost of treatment - how about you write your congressperson to strengthen laws so that these drug companies can't make such huge profits for so long? Many pharmaceutical companies ask for extension upon extension of their patents so that generics are never available.

[Anonymous]

I have a friend who was just diagnosed with breast cancer and it was detected from a mammogram. It had already spread to a few lymph nodes.