The future of breast cancer screening is here – with vast improvements over mammography

Myth vs. fact

Three years ago, the U.S. Preventive Task Force produced evidence to change recommended mammogram screening to every other year, starting at age 50.

The medical mainstream said, “No.”

Earlier this year, I told you about an 11-year study that confirmed the Task Force results.

The mainstream said, “No.”

Now we have a MUCH longer, larger study. And this research has produced the same conclusions.

And the mainstream response? You already know. I don’t even have to say it.

Earth to mainstream… wake up! Get your head out of the sand. Stick a fork in it. The ship has sailed. Any way you mix the metaphors, it turns out the same.

Game over.

Not moving on

In the new study, researchers looked at more than 30 years of breast cancer and mammogram data. They came to two clear conclusions…

1) Early detection of breast cancer does not lower the rate of advanced cancers.

2) U.S. doctors misdiagnosed more than one million women during the study period.

That means hundreds of thousands of women underwent unnecessary biopsies, surgeries, radiation therapies, and chemotherapies.

But according to Barbara Monsees, hey, that’s just the way it goes.

Monsees is chairwoman of the American College of Radiology Breast Imaging Commission. In other words, she’s an insider deep in the radiology industry.

She told Bloomberg, “At this point in time we really don’t have a choice anyway.”

No choice? That’s complete denial.

Last year, the FDA approved the Automated Breast Ultrasound System. In ABUS, there’s no breast compression, and ZERO radiation exposure. And with a technique called elastography, ultrasound technicians can accurately spot malignant tumors.

So the future of breast cancer screening has already arrived. And it includes a dramatic reduction in false positives and overdiagnosis.

Finally, women win.

Researchers in the new study say that conservative screening guidelines would reduce the average number of lifetime mammograms from 40 to just 13.

I’d say that’s 13-too-many mammograms.

But 13 ABUS exams sounds just about right.

Sources:
“Effect of Three Decades of Screening Mammography on Breast-Cancer Incidence” New England Journal of Medicine, Vol. 367, 11/22/12, nejm.org

“Early Breast Cancer Screens Shown to Have Limited Benefit” Nicole Ostrow, Bloomberg, 11/22/12, bloomberg.com