It’s said that in medicine, more is not always better.
And nowhere is that truer than in the case of mammograms.
It’s so clear that even the totally mainstream American Cancer Society — along with the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force, or USPSTF — actually pulled back on their recommendations for this notoriously unreliable test that has resulted not only in the overdiagnosis of breast cancer, but the overtreatment of it as well.
In fact, there have been so many studies out there that have shot so many holes in the mammography myth, it’s amazing to me that it can still stand!
Yet a new study from Johns Hopkins has discovered that the lion’s share of doctors surveyed are bucking the trends set by two of the foremost authorities on cancer and still convincing their patients to submit to this procedure every year, starting way too young and continuing basically forever.
But there’s something you can do on your own that is far better — and safer — than all those yearly screenings.
When a mobile mammography truck makes its rounds in a community, it sure looks like some serious preventive medicine is going on.
But often, it’s just the opposite…for younger and older women.
A perfect example is a friend of mine, a healthy woman approaching 50 who thought she was getting a great deal taking advantage of a free mammography van that came to her town.
But Beth was told that something wasn’t quite right with her test. And so began a year of fear and anxiety, additional tests, and biopsies.
And then, after all that, she was told by another doctor that she had been misdiagnosed.
Unfortunately, Beth’s situation wasn’t just a fluke — in fact, it’s all too common. As the Susan G. Komen organization tells it, the test is almost as bad as tossing a coin to see if you have breast cancer. After 10 years of yearly screenings, the group says, your risk of getting a false positive hits an astonishing 60 percent!
Even if what Beth was first told she had — ductal carcinoma in situ — had been correct (which it wasn’t), DCIS is a non-threatening, non-invasive “cancer” that shouldn’t have caused her all that pain and anguish over those 12 months.
Many experts believe it isn’t even cancer at all!
My friend, however, was lucky. Because many women who are told they have DCIS are rushed into radiation, poisoned with dangerous drugs and even sold on a mastectomy — you know, just to be on the safe side.
And that’s in spite of the fact that data from the National Cancer Institute shows that most suspicious mammography results would be perfectly fine if left alone.
Despite the fact that mainstream medical groups still back mammography as if they had a vested interest in it (and who knows?), two of the biggest ones backed down a bit a couple of years ago.
That’s when the ACS recommended that women wait an additional five years before getting their first mammogram, which they now suggest at age 45 instead of 40. The USPSTF, on the other hand, says that you can wait another five years, with mammograms not necessary until the big 5-0.
And both organizations agree that you only need to be screened every other year once you’re past 55, with no point in getting screened at all once you’re 75 or older.
That, however, hasn’t stopped doctors from riding the mammography gravy train — not one bit!
Because, according to this new Johns Hopkins study, over 80 percent of doctors surveyed are still pushing younger women to get a mammogram every year, and two-thirds of them are still giving the annual test to their patients over 75.
As I mentioned earlier, there’s loads of evidence against getting mammograms too early and too frequently. For example, a 25-year study out of Canada found that death rates are almost exactly the same for those women who get screened and those who don’t.
That same study also revealed that one in five cancers discovered by mammograms should not be treated because either they’re slow-growing… or they don’t even grow at all!
And that means they certainly don’t warrant risky, painful and disfiguring procedures.
Dr. Deborah Grady, with the University of California School of Medicine, said that she found the fact that so many doctors aren’t following the current guidelines “disappointing and dispiriting.”
But what’s really dispiriting is how many women are never told the truth about mammography, and how many of them will suffer the consequences.
And lost in this debate is the fact that one of the most important things you can do is a self-breast exam. So learn how to do it from a trained nurse, and do it every month.
Just remember — if a mobile mammography van shows up in your community, the chances are far greater that it will do more to put your life in danger than to extend it.
“Doctors not sending women for mammograms at recommended ages, survey shows” Dennis Thompson, April 10, 2017, CBS News, cbsnews.com
