The Great Mammogram Hoax?

The prestigious British Medical Journal has just published, “the rationale for screening by mammography should be urgently reassessed…” An accompanying editorial written by Dr Mette Kalager, stated that the study did not support screening mammograms for women under 60 years old.

I’d only disagree to the extent that such archaic technology is as harmful to a 60-year-old woman as it is to a 20-year-old woman. Why would a healthy 60-year-old woman, who has lived breast cancer free, now wish to begin irradiating her breasts? I’ve never been a proponent of screening mammograms. Why?

1. Almost 22% of mammogram results give false positive results and life-threatening treatment often begins. This treatment can injure or kill women.

2. 20% of all mammograms erroneously give false negative results.

3. This means that screening mammograms are about as effective as a coin flip (58% vs 50%). Remember that the 58% success is being reported by the same industry that benefits financially from continuing routine screening mammography.

4. I do not believe it is ever safe to irradiate any human tissue, let alone annually.

5. If it doesn’t work, it should be discarded immediately.

I know that some women claim that their lives had been spared by early breast cancer detection via mammography. I believe these women and am thrilled for them. What is never taken into consideration, however, by any organization that promotes mammograms, is the voiceless. Millions of lives have been lost to what is now being determined to be a questionable technology. Women are not the only ones affected by over diagnosing. Coming soon, I will report on a new book, written by a pioneering doctor, who claims that his 40-year-old discovery-an early diagnostic test for prostate cancer, called the PSA, was a total medical hoax.