Re: Mammogram
Good article here in the NCBI, goes back to 2011 !
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3225414/
Time to stop mammography screening?
"These guidelines are an important step in the right direction, away from the prevailing attitude that a woman who does not undergo screening is irresponsible. Recent research even suggests that it may be most wise to avoid screening altogether, at any age, as outlined below."
"If screening does not reduce the occurrence of advanced cancers, it does not work. A systematic review of studies from seven countries showed that, on average, the rate of malignant tumours larger than 20 millimetres was not affected by screening.2 Because the size of a tumour is linearly correlated to the risk of metastasis,4 this result is evidence against an effect of screening."
"It has often been claimed that mammography screening reduces breast cancer mortality by 30%.9 However, thorough systematic reviews have estimated only a 15% reduction,2,3 and data on tumour size from the trials are compatible with only a 12% effect.4 This effect is similar to the results seen in the most reliable studies, which showed a 10% effect after 13 years."
"Any possible effect of screening on breast cancer mortality must be marginal and could be counteracted by the life-shortening effect that radio-therapy and chemotherapy have when used in healthy women in whom breast cancer has been overdiagnosed (i.e., a diagnosis of breast cancer that would not have been made in the woman’s remaining life had she not undergone screening).3 The main effect of screening is to produce patients with breast cancer from among healthy women who would have remained free of breast disease for the rest of their lives had they not undergone screening. Compelling data from the US, Norway and Sweden show that most overdiagnosed tumours would have regressed spontaneously without treatment.2,10 In addition, screening substantially increases the number of mastectomies performed,2,3 despite routine claims to the contrary by advocates of screening.2"
"The best method we have to reduce the risk of breast cancer is to stop the screening program. This could reduce the risk by one-third in the screened age group, as the level of overdiagnosis in countries with organized screening programs is about 50%.11
If screening had been a drug, it would have been withdrawn from the market. Thus, which country will be first to stop mammography screening?"