Article explains the dangers of annual mammograms for breast cancer diagnosis in women.
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Routine mammography exposes the individual to an exceptionally high amount of ionizing radiation. Ionizing radiation is something we are all exposed to in nature and the body can handle a certain amount each year without it becoming risky. One series of mammograms (2 xrays on each breast) is equivalent to the radiation dose of 1000 normal chest or spinal x-rays.
Due to this enormous blast of radiation many experts warn that mammography actually increases the risk of breast cancer. Dr. Russell Blaylock, MD, estimated that annual mammography increases the risk of breast cancer by 2% each year. The National Cancer Institute has stated that mammography is especially dangerous for younger women. In fact, they have stated that it could cause 75 cases of breast cancer for every 15 it identifies. Other studies have shown up to a 52% increase in breast cancer mortality in young women given annual testing.
The incidence of certain forms of breast cancer such as ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) has increased by 328% since mammography was introduced. Cancer research has also found a gene called oncogene AC that is very sensitive to radiation. Women who have this gene are at extraordinarily high risk when exposed to mammography. Researchers estimate that 10,000 of these gene carriers will die of breast cancer each year due to mammography.
mammograms also miss cancers if they are more towards the armpit. The other problem with western medicine is it is too concentrated on diagnosis and not enough on treatment.
Plans to expand the national breast screening programme have been called into question amid fresh claims that women are being misled about the benefits.
Claims by the NHS Breast Screening Programme (NHSBSP) that screening reduces breast cancer deaths by a third and cuts the risk of mastectomy are dishonest, according to research published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. The claims are based on "cherry-picked" data while "inconvenient truths" about the greater impact of new treatments and increased awareness among women are ignored, claim scientists from the Nordic Cochrane Centre, an independent institution that specialises in analysing research data.
The paper calls into question the integrity of eminent UK scientists who insist that the programme saves hundreds of lives every year � even though similar improvements have occurred among women ineligible for screening. The accusations were last night dismissed by the NHSBSP as unfounded.
The paper is likely to reignite the heated scientific debate about the value of breast screening, which costs the NHS more than �80m a year. Critics say the programme's benefits have always been overstated.
Peter Gotzsche, professor of clinical research, design and analysis at the University of Copenhagen and the study's lead author, said: "Senior researchers who are affiliated with the UK screening programme continue to distort the facts even though we, and others, have pointed out their errors.
"I can only speculate why, but when you have believed in something for a long time and your career is built on that belief, it is very difficult to change. These people, in a scientific sense, are behaving outright dishonestly and doing women a great disservice."
A flurry of papers published in the last two years raised concerns about the harmful effects of scanning women due to high rates of over-diagnosis. From these studies, the new paper estimates that screening leads to 50 per cent over-diagnosis of breast cancers � tumours identified and treated needlessly as they would never actually have progressed or caused illness.
The authors criticise the NHSBSP information leaflet which they say plays down this risk. But supporters insist the public health benefits far outweigh the risks. Professor Julietta Patnick, director of the NHS Cancer Screening Programmes, said: "We know that 97 per cent of women with screen-detected cancers are alive five years later compared to just over 80 per cent of women diagnosed without screening, and screeninglowers a woman's risk of having a mastectomy."
Screening for younger and older women will be expanded over the next few years, costing an extra �12m a year. A Department of Health spokesperson said: "According to the vast majority of experts, breast screening reduces deaths from breast cancer... We are expanding the programme so that we save even more lives."
Thermograms are safe and reportedly more effective than mammograms. If you don't have that available might as well get a sonogram if you are suspecting something. Any spot on a mammogram will be checked out by a sonogram anyway.
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Thermograms are safe and reportedly more effective than mammograms. If you don't have that available might as well get a sonogram if you are suspecting something. Any spot on a mammogram will be checked out by a sonogram anyway.
Professor Michael Baum (UCL School of Life and Medical Sciences)
The pro-screening lobby is locked into a mindset dating back to the late 1980s. Since then our understanding of the biology of breast cancer and its treatment has moved on whilst the screening programme continues without modification based on the results of trials reported in 1987. This lecture will discuss some of the harmful problems of this over-diagnosing system, and will look at the need for radical change to bring the entire programme up to date with modern practice based on risk assessment and risk management.
Its all about money. They have created a billion dollar empire on creating the availability of mammograms, long before anyone was thinking too much about how dangerous they were... and there are not enough sonogram techs.... its a good profession to get into if one is so inclined
Many women are afraid of their first mammogram, and even if they have had them before, there is fear. But there is no need to worry. By taking a few minutes each day for a week preceding the exam and doing the following practice exercises, you will be totally prepared for the test, and best of all, you can do these simple practice exercises right in your home.
EXERCISE 1: Open your refrigerator door, and insert one breast between the door and the main box. Have one of your strongest friends slam the door shut as hard as possible and lean on the door for good measure Hold that position for five seconds. Repeat in case the first time wasn't effective.
EXERCISE 2: Visit your garage at 3 a.m. when the temperature of the cement floor is just perfect. Take off all your clothes and lie comfortably on the floor sideways with one breast wedged under the rear tire of the car. Ask a friend to slowly back the car up until your breast is sufficiently flattened and chilled. Switch sides, and repeat for the other breast.
EXERCISE 3: Freeze two metal bookends overnight. Strip to the waist. Invite a stranger into the room. Have the stranger press the bookends against either side of one of your breasts and smash the bookends together as hard as he/she can. Set an appointment with the stranger to meet next year to do it again. You are now properly prepared!
And just a thought for all you women out there: MENtal illness, MENstrual cramps, MENtal breakdown, MENopause. Ever notice how all of women's problems start with men? And when we have real problems, it's HISterectomy!
Hilarious, Arrow! but basically accurate!
I had just one mammogram years ago, somewhere in my late 40's or early 50's. I'm now almost 76.
Since I breast fed all 4 of my children for at least 10 months each, plus there's no breast cancer
in my past female relatives, I figure I'm not too likely to get it.
I don't recall being afraid at the time, just shocked at the cold & the pain.
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Its all about money. They have created a billion dollar empire on creating the availability of mammograms, long before anyone was thinking too much about how dangerous they were... and there are not enough sonogram techs.... its a good profession to get into if one is so inclined
Conclusions The contrast between the time differences in implementation of mammography screening and the similarity in reductions in mortality between the country pairs suggest that screening did not play a direct part in the reductions in breast cancer mortality.
Basically it's a polite way of saying mammography screening is a waste of time and money.
Mammograms are one of my pet peeves. Early mammograms used such a high dose of radiation they caused a high percentage of breast cancer in women. The radiation dose was reduced when studies proved breast cancer was rising rather than being conquered by mammogram diagnosis. Damage is done to breast tissues during the process of mammography, radiation is not the only danger. Mammography is a huge money making industry which will not go away until women educate themselves, and stop responding to the fear mongering of the industry which falsely claims annual mammograms are necessary to prevent death due to breast cancer.
Mammogram Dangers
Breast screening: some inconvenient truths (28 Oct 2010)
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