Study shows increased mammograms result in more mastectomies
 
According to a recent Norwegian study, mammograms, long touted as essential to early detection of breast cancer in order to help women avoid surgery, may actually result in unnecessary mastectomies. The study suggests that mastectomy rates rise as the numbers of women who receive the screening procedure increase.

The study drew on data from Norway's national breast cancer screening program for 35,000 women aged 40 to 79 diagnosed with early or invasive breast cancers. Oslo researchers discovered a 31% increased risk of mastectomy among women invited to receive mammograms compared with a non-invited younger age group.

The research team found, in comparing rates of mastectomy before and after the institution of the national screening program, mastectomies increased by 9% among women invited to screenings. However mastectomy rates decreased by 17 percent during the same time period among non-invited women aged 40 to 49 and by 13 percent in non-invited women aged 70 to 79.

Pal Suhrke, study author, observed that "these results are surprising and disappointing because one might suspect that due to earlier detection of tumors, the number of women needing mastectomies would decrease."

Surhke points to "cancer over-diagnosis" as the likely reason for the greater incidence of mastectomies among the older group of women who received mammograms. Mammograms may result in detection and surgical treatment of slow-growing tumors which actually pose little cancer risk.

The surgical oncology establishment has gone on the defensive against Suhrke's findings and his conclusions, trying to argue that "an element of over-treatment" is a natural consequence of testing procedures.

Women endangered by high rate of false-positive mammograms/radiation exposure

Mammograms are the key to surviving breast cancer, according to mainstream medicine, because they supposedly catch the disease early for quick treatment. This advice invariably leaves out evidence that exposure to the radiation used in the tests may actually cause breast cancer in some women.

A study presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) concluded annual mammography screening significantly increases breast cancer risk in women with a genetic or familial predisposition to the disease

There's another reason to be concerned about the push for women to have yearly mammograms. In a new study by University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) research shows that among women who receive a decade of annual mammograms, more than half of those women will be called and told the news that their tests are positive when they are actually cancer-free. The victims of false-positive results -- not a malignancy -- are then subjected to more tests. In fact, one in twelve of these women will undergo invasive, potentially breast-scarring biopsy surgery.

"This study provides accurate estimates of the risk of a false-positive mammography and breast biopsy for women undergoing repeat mammography in community practice, and so provides important information about the potential harms of undergoing regular mammography," states Karla Kerlikowske, a professor of medicine at the UCSF School of Medicine. Karla is also the co-author of the study, which was just published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

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