Are mammograms causing breast cancer? Routine screenings may increase the likelihood of a false positive

New research shows that as screenings increase, false positives do, too.

New data suggests routine breast screening are leading to a significant number of "false positives." A growing number of women are told they may have breast cancer, but in actuality, they do not.

MUNTINLUPA, PHILIPPINES (Catholic Online) - Women, aged 50 to 70, undergo mammograms every three years in the United Kingdom. In recent years, negative impacts of screening have surfaced.

Several experts claim that catching a tumor early urges women into potentially unnecessary and risky treatments, such as radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

The study, led by doctors at Harvard University, indicates that the growing population of women offered routine mammograms increases the rate of overdiagnosis. Their research, published in the medical journal JAMA Internal Medicine, compares the health records of 16 million women, aged 40 and over, across the United States. They compared the degrees to which mammograms were practiced in 547 different U.S. areas.

The research team discovered that in locations where mammograms were used more, the number of women told they had cancer amplified, and there was no corresponding decrease in breast cancer deaths.

The researchers saw a 25 percent increase in the number of small breast cancer signs spotted, which is expected if the cancer is identified early. However, there was no decrease in the number of large tumors, which should have been evident if the screenings were effective.

The authors, led by Professor Richard Wilson, wrote, "What explains the data? The simplest explanation is widespread overdiagnosis, which increases the incidence of small cancers without changing mortality, and therefore matches every feature of the observed data."

The authors added that their findings should be treated with caution, because their data was simply statistical and there was no way to induce clear conclusions regarding the cause and the effect.

---

'Help Give every Student and Teacher FREE resources for a world-class Moral Catholic Education'

Copyright 2021 - Distributed by Catholic Online