Why 'playing it safe' after a breast cancer diagnosis often isn't

When you’re diagnosed with breast cancer, you deserve the very best care – based on the very latest science.

But a disturbing new study proves that most cancer doctors may be designing care plans that throw science (and your best interests) right out the window.

A stunning 90 percent of women with early-stage breast cancer are being sent for three dangerous tests that medical researchers – and leading cancer groups – demanded be stopped years ago.

Tests that won’t do a thing to help cure your cancer and could even leave you with a far more serious and life-threatening version of the disease.

When less is moreIt seems impossible to believe that cancer doctors could be making a medical mistake on nearly nine of every 10 early-stage breast cancer patients they treat.

But that’s exactly what Dr. Mark Clemons, a cancer expert at The Ottawa Hospital in Canada, discovered when he analyzed health records on 26,000 women diagnosed with stage I and II breast cancer.

Nearly 90 percent of the women studied had been sent for follow-up CT, PET and MRI scans they never needed to see if their cancer had spread. Scans that use heavy doses of radiation and toxic metals.

Having a doctor check to see whether your cancer has advanced may seem like sound medicine. But stage I and II cancers, by definition, are confined to your breast.

CT, PET and MRI scans are so useless for women with early-stage breast cancer that even groups like the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the National Comprehensive Cancer Network have recommended for years that doctors should almost never use them.

“The extensive evidence tells us,” said Dr. Clemons, that for women who have early stage breast cancer, “the chance of seeing metastases is so low that the risk of harm (from testing) is far greater.”

But Dr. Clemons found that evidence is being ignored, and it could be causing a rash of additional cancers and dangerous overtreatment.

CT, PET and MRI scans are not the harmless tests the mainstream makes them out to be. The radiation from CT and PET scans has been proven to damage your DNA and potentially trigger deadlier cancers down the road. A CT scan alone can deliver as much radiation as 500 X-rays, and research has shown that every CT scan you get increases your cancer risk.

And just last week I told you how MRIs are often using dangerous contrasting agents with gadolinium, a toxic metal that pools in our tissues and our brains and may actually help tumors grow.

But the risks of all these unnecessary CT, PET and MRI scans could be even more immediate, said Dr. Daniel Rayson, another cancer researcher who analyzed Dr. Clemon’s findings. That’s because most of us have tiny abnormalities… things we’ve probably had our entire lives… that are practically guaranteed to show up on common medical scans.

But you know what happens when cancer is in the picture. Suddenly these “clinically insignificant” findings turn into giant worries. Women are regularly sent for biopsies, surgeries, and more harmful scans they don’t need.

“When these tests are done… this usually triggers further testing and evaluation which results in escalating anxiety, and occasionally can lead to wrong conclusions,” Dr. Rayson told Reuters.

So how can that important message get through to doctors? North of the border they’ve launched a campaign called “Choosing Wisely Canada” to try and educate doctors and patients about unnecessary testing and procedures.

But even health experts admit that getting stubborn doctors to change their behaviors will take time. That’s why it’s important for you to manage your own care and ask questions about which tests you need and which you can skip.

It can be hard, especially during such a stressful time, to step back, take a deep breath, and realize that, as Dr. Clemens said, more is not always better.

But if your doctor insists on ordering CT, PET and MRI tests and following an outdated rulebook, maybe it’s time to get a second opinion.

Sources:

“Many with early breast cancer have too many imaging tests” Kathryn Doyle, June 22, 2015, Reuters, reuters.com

“Tests are ‘exposing patients to multiple harms'” Carly Weeks, June 24, 2015, The Globe and Mail, pressreader.com