Do Mammograms Do More Harm Than Good?

First we had the prostate cancer test dilemma, fueled by research suggesting that PSA tests were the first step towards quality-of-life damaging treatments that, in all but a very few cases, did not save lives. Now comes a movement in Great Britain, claiming that federally-published pamphlets have long overstated the benefits of mammographical screening for breast cancer, and failed to mention the downside.  The New York Times reports on the tussle, citing a 2006 analysis
by the Nordic Cochrane Center collaborative, which 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. On this side of the pond, the Times quotes Dr. Ned Calonge, chairman of the United States Preventive Services Task
Force, saying that mammography has also been oversold to American women. Among women 50 and over, the Times reports, only one death
would be prevented after 14 years of observing more than 800 women who
had undergone screening. Geezer finds it all very disturbing.
Read more in the New York Times.