john
2010-03-20 06:47:20 UTC
Mammograms cause 7,000 women to receive false positives each year in the UK
Friday, March 19, 2010 by: E. Huff, staff writer
http://www.naturalnews.com/028407_mammograms_radiation.html
(NaturalNews) Experts from the Nordic Cochrane Centre (NCC) in the U.K. have
estimated that about 7,000 British women are improperly diagnosed for breast
cancer each year because of mammography. The group is urging the National
Health Service (NHS) to reevaluate its breast cancer screening program,
citing a failure of mammography to properly diagnose patients.
Controversy over the legitimacy of mammography has been heating up worldwide
as increasing numbers of medical professionals, industry watchdogs, consumer
advocates, and others are recognizing that mammography is failing to achieve
what it was intended to do. Not only does it improperly detect cancer cells,
but it often subjects women to needless treatments that end up causing them
more harm than good.
Official British mammography rhetoric claims that 1,400 deaths are prevented
every year from mammography screenings, however there is no evidence to back
up this claim. The NCC article, published in the Journal of the Royal
Society of Medicine explains that many of the claims made by the NHS about
its screening program are not backed up by evidence.
Take, for instance, the fact that mortality rates from breast cancer were
steadily dropping before the screening program was implemented in the late
1980s. Even amongst women too young for screenings, a reduction in breast
cancer deaths was taking place, indicating that the screening program had
nothing to do with it.
On the contrary, mammography screening often misdiagnoses women with cancer,
causing them to undergo dangerous treatments like chemotherapy, radiation,
and biopsy surgery which end up taking a big toll on their bodies. The
screenings themselves also inflict routine doses of toxic radiation that can
encourage the growth and spread of malignant cancer cells, defeating the
point.
Representatives from NHS were quick to defend the screening process,
claiming that critics are not properly interpreting data and statistics
concerning breast cancer mortality rates. According to them, women who are
screened have a 35 percent less chance of dying from breast cancer.
It is difficult to pinpoint just how many women get breast cancer from
screenings. There are also no statistics on how many women die from
chemotherapy and radiation treatments that they did not actually need or for
cancers that they would not have gotten would they not have been screened.
One thing is for sure; the cancer industry continues to insist that
mammography screening is safe and effective at preventing breast cancer
deaths, despite evidence that indicates otherwise.
Sources for this story include:
Breast cancer screening benefits questioned
The NHS breast cancer screening programme should be reviewed as 7,000 women
a year may wrongly receive a diagnosis of cancer, experts have warned.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/7019952/Breast-cancer-screening-benefits-questioned.html
19 Jan 2010
Despite assertions that screening saves 1,400 lives a year, there is no
evidence the programme has cut deaths, the article in the Journal of the
Royal Society of Medicine said.
Controversy over the benefits of breast cancer screening were first raised
last year when experts said women were not being told of the potential harms
in leaflets given out to encourage attentance.
Women may be wrongly told they have cancer and so undergo unnecessary
treatment and screening may detect tumours that would not progress to be
harmful and so could also be removed needlessly. The unnecessary treatments
may expose women to chemotherapy, radiotherapy or surgery which itself has
harmful effects.
Experts at the Nordic Cochrane Centre has now calculated that 7,000 women in
Britain are being wrongly diagnosed with breast cancer as a result of
screening.
In 2006 there were 45,400 women and 300 men diagnosed with breast cancer in
Britain, according to data held by Cancer Research UK.
Figures from the charity show in the 1970s only five out of 10 patients
lived for five years after diagnosis compared with eight out of ten now.
Two authors from the Nordic Cochrane Centre, an independent research centre,
evaulated the NHS screening programme's annual report and said many of its
assertions are not backed by the evidence.
Mortality rates for breast cancer began dropping before the screening
programme was introduced in 1988 and have dropped just as much in women too
young to be called for screening showing that the reduction in deaths is
probably due to better treatment and not screening, it said.
Lead author Karsten Juhl Jørgensen said one in five women who have been
screened for ten years will have been recalled for some suspect finding on
their mammography raising concern they have cancer only to be given the all
clear.
Some of those women will have had further testing such as a biopsy taken by
inserting a needle into the 'tumour' and three per cent will have had
surgery.
The article went on to say that women who attend for screening are often
more health conscious so their prognosis will be better and screening tends
to find cancers that are slow growing and both factors contribute to the
idea that women whose cancers are detected via screening have better
survival rates.
It said:"Most of the pronounced decline in breast cancer mortality is likely
caused by improved treatment, which can explain why it has been similarly
large among the young women who have not been invited to screening. Other
factors, such as increased 'breast awareness', may also have contributed."
Professor Julietta Patnick, Director of the NHS Cancer Screening Programmes
said: "This paper is not based on any new data. The NHS Breast Screening
Programme, the independent Advisory Committee on Breast Cancer Screening and
numerous independent screening practitioners have all responded previously
pointing out the inaccuracies in the author's selection and use of the
statistics on breast screening.
"Numerous independent studies have shown breast cancer screening reduces
mortality. A report from the World Health Organisation's International
Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) concluded that there is a 35 per cent
reduction in mortality from breast cancer among regularly screened women
aged 50 - 69 years old.
"In the UK the independent Advisory Committee on Breast Cancer Screening
estimated that for every 400 women screened regularly by the NHS Breast
Screening Programme over a 10 year period, one woman fewer will die from
breast cancer than would have died without screening, and the current NHS
Breast Screening Programme saves an estimated 1,400 lives each year in
England."
A spokesman for the Department of Health said: "Cancer remains a high
priority for this Government. The Cancer Reform Strategy, published in
December 2007 sets out a clear direction for cancer services over the next
five years and shows how we will deliver cancer outcomes that are amongst
the best in the world.
"We know that, generally, the earlier a cancer is diagnosed the greater the
chance it will be treated successfully. During 2007/08, the NHS Breast
Screening Programme screened over 1.7 million women and 14,110 cancers were
detected."
Friday, March 19, 2010 by: E. Huff, staff writer
http://www.naturalnews.com/028407_mammograms_radiation.html
(NaturalNews) Experts from the Nordic Cochrane Centre (NCC) in the U.K. have
estimated that about 7,000 British women are improperly diagnosed for breast
cancer each year because of mammography. The group is urging the National
Health Service (NHS) to reevaluate its breast cancer screening program,
citing a failure of mammography to properly diagnose patients.
Controversy over the legitimacy of mammography has been heating up worldwide
as increasing numbers of medical professionals, industry watchdogs, consumer
advocates, and others are recognizing that mammography is failing to achieve
what it was intended to do. Not only does it improperly detect cancer cells,
but it often subjects women to needless treatments that end up causing them
more harm than good.
Official British mammography rhetoric claims that 1,400 deaths are prevented
every year from mammography screenings, however there is no evidence to back
up this claim. The NCC article, published in the Journal of the Royal
Society of Medicine explains that many of the claims made by the NHS about
its screening program are not backed up by evidence.
Take, for instance, the fact that mortality rates from breast cancer were
steadily dropping before the screening program was implemented in the late
1980s. Even amongst women too young for screenings, a reduction in breast
cancer deaths was taking place, indicating that the screening program had
nothing to do with it.
On the contrary, mammography screening often misdiagnoses women with cancer,
causing them to undergo dangerous treatments like chemotherapy, radiation,
and biopsy surgery which end up taking a big toll on their bodies. The
screenings themselves also inflict routine doses of toxic radiation that can
encourage the growth and spread of malignant cancer cells, defeating the
point.
Representatives from NHS were quick to defend the screening process,
claiming that critics are not properly interpreting data and statistics
concerning breast cancer mortality rates. According to them, women who are
screened have a 35 percent less chance of dying from breast cancer.
It is difficult to pinpoint just how many women get breast cancer from
screenings. There are also no statistics on how many women die from
chemotherapy and radiation treatments that they did not actually need or for
cancers that they would not have gotten would they not have been screened.
One thing is for sure; the cancer industry continues to insist that
mammography screening is safe and effective at preventing breast cancer
deaths, despite evidence that indicates otherwise.
Sources for this story include:
Breast cancer screening benefits questioned
The NHS breast cancer screening programme should be reviewed as 7,000 women
a year may wrongly receive a diagnosis of cancer, experts have warned.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/7019952/Breast-cancer-screening-benefits-questioned.html
19 Jan 2010
Despite assertions that screening saves 1,400 lives a year, there is no
evidence the programme has cut deaths, the article in the Journal of the
Royal Society of Medicine said.
Controversy over the benefits of breast cancer screening were first raised
last year when experts said women were not being told of the potential harms
in leaflets given out to encourage attentance.
Women may be wrongly told they have cancer and so undergo unnecessary
treatment and screening may detect tumours that would not progress to be
harmful and so could also be removed needlessly. The unnecessary treatments
may expose women to chemotherapy, radiotherapy or surgery which itself has
harmful effects.
Experts at the Nordic Cochrane Centre has now calculated that 7,000 women in
Britain are being wrongly diagnosed with breast cancer as a result of
screening.
In 2006 there were 45,400 women and 300 men diagnosed with breast cancer in
Britain, according to data held by Cancer Research UK.
Figures from the charity show in the 1970s only five out of 10 patients
lived for five years after diagnosis compared with eight out of ten now.
Two authors from the Nordic Cochrane Centre, an independent research centre,
evaulated the NHS screening programme's annual report and said many of its
assertions are not backed by the evidence.
Mortality rates for breast cancer began dropping before the screening
programme was introduced in 1988 and have dropped just as much in women too
young to be called for screening showing that the reduction in deaths is
probably due to better treatment and not screening, it said.
Lead author Karsten Juhl Jørgensen said one in five women who have been
screened for ten years will have been recalled for some suspect finding on
their mammography raising concern they have cancer only to be given the all
clear.
Some of those women will have had further testing such as a biopsy taken by
inserting a needle into the 'tumour' and three per cent will have had
surgery.
The article went on to say that women who attend for screening are often
more health conscious so their prognosis will be better and screening tends
to find cancers that are slow growing and both factors contribute to the
idea that women whose cancers are detected via screening have better
survival rates.
It said:"Most of the pronounced decline in breast cancer mortality is likely
caused by improved treatment, which can explain why it has been similarly
large among the young women who have not been invited to screening. Other
factors, such as increased 'breast awareness', may also have contributed."
Professor Julietta Patnick, Director of the NHS Cancer Screening Programmes
said: "This paper is not based on any new data. The NHS Breast Screening
Programme, the independent Advisory Committee on Breast Cancer Screening and
numerous independent screening practitioners have all responded previously
pointing out the inaccuracies in the author's selection and use of the
statistics on breast screening.
"Numerous independent studies have shown breast cancer screening reduces
mortality. A report from the World Health Organisation's International
Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) concluded that there is a 35 per cent
reduction in mortality from breast cancer among regularly screened women
aged 50 - 69 years old.
"In the UK the independent Advisory Committee on Breast Cancer Screening
estimated that for every 400 women screened regularly by the NHS Breast
Screening Programme over a 10 year period, one woman fewer will die from
breast cancer than would have died without screening, and the current NHS
Breast Screening Programme saves an estimated 1,400 lives each year in
England."
A spokesman for the Department of Health said: "Cancer remains a high
priority for this Government. The Cancer Reform Strategy, published in
December 2007 sets out a clear direction for cancer services over the next
five years and shows how we will deliver cancer outcomes that are amongst
the best in the world.
"We know that, generally, the earlier a cancer is diagnosed the greater the
chance it will be treated successfully. During 2007/08, the NHS Breast
Screening Programme screened over 1.7 million women and 14,110 cancers were
detected."