Negative aspects of breast screening

Claims of breast cancer screening success are dishonest, say critics

Breast screening: some inconvenient truths (28 Oct 2010)

Breast cancer mortality in neighbouring European countries with different levels of screening but similar access to treatment: trend analysis of WHO mortality database Basically it's a polite way of saying mammography screening is a waste of time and money.

Effect of abnormal screening mammogram on quality of life.

Re: Negative aspects of breast screening

Breast screening advice updated amid controversy over harms

This latest news item confirms my view that screening is mostly a job creation scheme for health professionals and a profit generating exercise for the drugs industry.

There are better ways of reducing BC mortality and reducing INCIDENCE would be more cost effective.

The difference between treating a cancer before there are palpable signs or symptoms, is not that much better, given the improvements in modern treatments, than would be obtained by making it quicker, easier and giving more encouragement to people to get checked out as soon as they have the slightest concern.

What we should be doing is trying harder to PREVENT cancer starting in the first place.
The easiest cheapest strategy is to get vitamin D levels up to the NATURAL level at which Vit d is most effective as an anti-inflammatory agent. 125nmol/l or 50ng/ml.

Help prevent up to 80% of Breast Cancer with a vitamin D serum level of 50 ng/ml


City Assays (Birmingham NHS path lab Vitamin D Blood Spot Test £25 or £20 if you bulk buy and share
A years supply of 5000iu vitamin D3 shouldn't cost more than £13 in UK or £6.00 posted from the USA.

If we know a significant number of breast lumps detected over winter aren't found in later screenings during the summer doesn't it make sense to keep vitamin d levels a little above the natural levels we normally attain at the end of our miserable summers.

We know one of the most common reasons for inflammation is hyperglycaemia.
Doesn't it make sense to restrict carbohydrate consumption so blood sugar levels stay low?
Feinman has several blogs on the topic of high insulin and cancer growth.
Targeting insulin inhibition as a metabolic therapy in advanced cancer

If we reduced the pro-inflammatory (refined carbs + industrial seed oils) aspects of our diet and improved the anti-inflammatory aspects (omega 3 fish oil) it may reduce cancer incidence. A high omega-3 to omega-6 ratio may be the optimal strategy to decrease breast cancer risk.

When we understand the way inflammation increases oxidative damage to DNA it also makes sense to reduce the possibility of iron oxidation by avoiding the build up of iron overload that starts when women stop monthly bleeds.
Does iron have a role in breast cancer?
We should be encouraging women approaching menopause to become regular blood donors and to continue donating blood regularly for as long as possible.
Men should start regular blood donation much earlier if they want to live as long as women do.

Re: Negative aspects of breast screening

Ted Hutchinson you do seem to have an obsession with breast screening or is it just another excuse for a bit of subtle spamming..


I was listening to the latest reports and a discussion on screening for breast cancer on radio 4 this this morning.
For those who didn't hear it this is basically what was inferred..

.. For thousands of women who undergo breast screening no problem will be detected....
..For some women a problem will be found and a decision made about the course of treatment.
..Because it is not always possible to detect the nature of a tumour in the early stages, some if left would have turned out to be benign so any treatment could be viewed as having been unnecessary. That may for some be the price to pay for peace of mind.
..Also as with treatment for any condition there can be nasty side effects.

So breast screening is still recommended because for the vast majority of women early detection could prevent them developing a malignant and life threatening tumour.

I have always maintained it is for each woman to make make her own decision on breast screening.
I guess some would rather not know if there is a problem in the first place but for many breast screening brings peace of mind

Re: Negative aspects of breast screening

Ted Hutchinson you do seem to have an obsession with breast screening
My partner, now 72 chooses not to go for screening and I support her decision.
We have better ways of PREVENTING CANCER INCIDENCE
Screening doesn't PREVENT cancer INCIDENCE.
We should do more to prevent cancer and then we would spend less on diagnosis and treatment

or is it just another excuse for a bit of subtle spamming..
I'm not sure why you object so much to people being informed of the cheapest ways to obtain vitamin D3 or having the source of cheapest Vitamin D3 testing explained to them.
We should all be willing to do everything possible to help others and where we can do this at no cost to ourselves then we should encourage and support that.

Your summary of this mornings discussion is accurate but readers should be aware that health professionals see things from a health professionals perspective.
If the same information were examined by people who were TOTALLY INDEPENDENT from the health profession they MAY see the issues differently.
We only have so much money to spend.
Where a course of action causes more expenditure than it saves or causes a poorer quality of life for more individuals than it improves QOL or where it diverts money from alternative strategies that would actually reduces the levels of cancer incidence and improve QOL then it's fair to say it is doing more harm than good.

I'm sure there are many people who are happy to see more women being mutilated unnecessarily than are being helped but I think it's a shame.

Woman's Hour Radio 4 Listen Again. go to about 27 minutes into the prog for the discussion

Re: Negative aspects of breast screening

The vitamin D sales rep, is now on my ignore list.
I'm sick of seeing his face and reading his scare-mongering.
Good job the ladies on this forum are sensible, have a sense of humour and enjoy a good banter despite this twerp.
I was trying to think of a funny..about putting his pills where the sun doesn't shine..

Re: Negative aspects of breast screening

Ah soles, cobblers (me shoes need doin and me 'andbag stitchin up Well summat need stitchin up)

Re: Negative aspects of breast screening

I wonder why he doesn't go on about prostate cancer, perhaps he knows more about ladies anatomies than mens.

Re: Negative aspects of breast screening

sorry strayed off topic apologies everyone

Re: Negative aspects of breast screening

So knowing that people with higher vitamin D levels have significantly lower incidence of breast cancer isn't helpful to readers of this forum

Dr. Mercola Interviews Carole Baggerly
Perhaps if you listened to someone whose been through the Breast cancer diagnosis/treatment process you may come to the conclusion that REDUCING incidence is better than just relying on earlier diagnosis.?

I'm sick of people thinking that promoting evidence based suggestions for PREVENTING cancer incidence is scaremongering.
Surely on a thread about mammography it's appropriate to point to the evidence?
14 years of mammography screening in Norway indicate that all increase in the incidence of breast cancer is due to over-diagnosis: findings of tumours that in the absence of screening would never have given rise to clinical illness.

Meta-analysis: the introduction of breast cancer screening might have caused net harm for up to 10 years after the start of screening.

Explaining what actually happens in practice in the real world isn't scaremongering. It's providing the evidence so people can make informed decisions.

The Twerps here are those people who don't take the evidence I present seriously. This isn't a joking matter. People are seriously damaged by health professionals treating cancers that would never have progressed to become threatening. We don't expose men with prostate cancer to this kind of savage treatment so why do we think it's appropriate treatment for women with breast cancer.

Well if you are interested it's certainly true that using vitamin D3 as suppositories is an effective form of administration.

Re: Negative aspects of breast screening

Correction Ted , for me the 'twerps' are the conceited know-it-alls who think it is ok to try to force their opinions on others ad nauseam.

It may have escaped your notice in your rush to push your supplements but many here have already been for a mammogram recently and I consider you constant rants to be unhelpful to them.