Mammograms Spot Cancers That May Not Be Dangerous
April 2, 2012 -- A new study suggests that routine mammograms, long pitched to women as lifesaving tests, may also be causing substantial harm.
The study estimates that as many as 1 in 4 cancers detected over a decade by routine mammograms are cancers that won’t grow or spread, cause symptoms, or lead to death.
Instead, these “overdiagnosed” cancers are treated with surgery, powerful drugs, and radiation, all when the cancer wouldn’t have made a woman sick in the first place.
“We are curing people who don’t need to be cured,” says Otis W. Brawley, MD, chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society.
Brawley reviewed the study for WebMD but was not involved in the research.
He says doctors have known for some time that not all breast cancers are dangerous. But he says it’s been difficult to figure out how many breast cancers are being treated when they probably don’t need to be.
In part, that’s because there aren’t any tests that can distinguish between cancers that are harmful and those that may not otherwise affect a person's health. And when doctors find cancer, they treat it, of course. Not doing so would be unethical. So there’s never been a population of women who were diagnosed with cancer but then left untreated so doctors could see what would naturally happen to those cancers over time.
“This is one of the best studies ever designed to try to figure that out,” Brawley says.
A Visual Guide to Breast Cancer
The study estimates that as many as 1 in 4 cancers detected over a decade by routine mammograms are cancers that won’t grow or spread, cause symptoms, or lead to death.
Instead, these “overdiagnosed” cancers are treated with surgery, powerful drugs, and radiation, all when the cancer wouldn’t have made a woman sick in the first place.
“We are curing people who don’t need to be cured,” says Otis W. Brawley, MD, chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society.
Brawley reviewed the study for WebMD but was not involved in the research.
He says doctors have known for some time that not all breast cancers are dangerous. But he says it’s been difficult to figure out how many breast cancers are being treated when they probably don’t need to be.
In part, that’s because there aren’t any tests that can distinguish between cancers that are harmful and those that may not otherwise affect a person's health. And when doctors find cancer, they treat it, of course. Not doing so would be unethical. So there’s never been a population of women who were diagnosed with cancer but then left untreated so doctors could see what would naturally happen to those cancers over time.
“This is one of the best studies ever designed to try to figure that out,” Brawley says.
A Visual Guide to Breast Cancer
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