More Bad News on Preventive Medicine
Do mammograms cause more harm than good? Some say yes.
A 2006 analysis by the Nordic Cochrane Center collaborative, an independent research and information center based in Copenhagen, found that for every 2,000 women age 50 to 70 who are screened for 10 years, one woman will be saved from dying of breast cancer, while 10 will have their lives disrupted unnecessarily by overtreatment.
This result is mindboggling.
This is the other side of the preventive care literature — the side that is rarely ever reported on.
Bruce is right. It’s the message no one wants to hear.
Also, this is not a new finding. There has been a literature sceptical of mammograms for years.
Wonder if the one woman who is saved thinks the “disruption” caused by possible overtreatment is “unnecessary.”