Our Feel-Good War on Breast Cancer

[Celebration]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/28/magazine/our-feel-good-war-on-breast-cancer.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&

Recently, a survey of three decades of screening published in November in The New England Journal of Medicine found that mammography’s impact is decidedly mixed: it does reduce, by a small percentage, the number of women who are told they have late-stage cancer, but it is far more likely to result in overdiagnosis and unnecessary treatment, including surgery, weeks of radiation and potentially toxic drugs. And yet, mammography remains an unquestioned pillar of the pink-ribbon awareness movement. Just about everywhere I go — the supermarket, the dry cleaner, the gym, the gas pump, the movie theater, the airport, the florist, the bank, the mall — I see posters proclaiming that “early detection is the best protection” and “mammograms save lives.” But how many lives, exactly, are being “saved,” under what circumstances and at what cost? Raising the public profile of breast cancer, a disease once spoken of only in whispers, was at one time critically important, as was emphasizing the benefits of screening. But there are unintended consequences to ever-greater “awareness” — and they, too, affect women’s health.

I'm female, never liked the color pink, and am decidedly sick of it now.

[Nay]

1. I think it saved my life; my breast cancer was detected by a mammogram when it was still

a Stage I, so I had some minimal surgery and 16 days of radiation. If I had not had my yearly mammogram, I would never have known that soon.

[Celebration]

2. read the article, it is enlightening

The author of it originally felt the same way.....................now she doesn't.

[bemildred]

3. It's a mini-max problem, we always have trouble with those.

When does the treatment become more of a problem than the problem?

[hedgehog]

4. Wow! Thank you for that article! It answers a lot of questions I've had, and confirmed

a lot of my own speculations.

My mother had a mastectomy at age 80. She's had several lumpectomies over the years - she was very private so I am unsure of the details. Did she ever really need surgery? Did she really need the mastectomy, something she dreaded ever since nurse's training in the 50's? Did the physical and emotional stress of that operation actually shorten her life? (She passed on two years later.) I will never know.

I myself had 3 chest x-rays over the last year for lung problems. I think I will avoid any more radiation.

[hedgehog]

5. Please cross post this to GD!

Expect to get flamed, but this deserves wider exposure!

[mopinko]

6. i think this analysis is completely bass-ackwards.

what it should be called is-
all the amazing shit we didn't know about breast cancer until we started widespread screening for breast cancer.

[Celebration]

7. sometimes we learn from mistakes n/t

[mopinko]

8. those things are not retroactive.

this writer seems to think that we should have already known the things we have learned.