Vast Study Casts Doubts on Value of Mammograms
It found that the death rates from breast cancer and from all causes were the same in women who got mammograms and those who did not. And the screening had harms: One in five cancers found with mammography and treated was not a threat to the woman’s health and did not need treatment such as chemotherapy, surgery or radiation.But yearly mammograms do add lots of value to the testing centers and pink charities, now don't they?
The study, published Tuesday in The British Medical Journal, is one of the few rigorous evaluations of mammograms conducted in the modern era of more effective breast cancer treatments. It randomly assigned Canadian women to have regular mammograms and breast exams by trained nurses or to have breast exams alone.
Researchers sought to determine whether there was any advantage to finding breast cancers when they were too small to feel. The answer is no, the researchers report.
'Prostate cancer test has been misused for money'
Pathologist Richard Ablin discovered the PSA antigen 40 years ago. He says it should never have been used as a cancer screening tool for all men.
Your book condemns the use of PSA for cancer screening. What do you hope to accomplish?The great thing about testing is the labs make money whether you're sick or not...
I hope to expose how the urology community and drug industry misused the PSA test, putting money over the best interests of patients. I also want to show how the US Food and Drug Administration failed in its duty to the public: its advisers warned that routine PSA screening would cause a public health disaster, but it was approved under pressure from advocacy groups and drug companies.
