After PSA test, next is the turn of mammograms

[Guest guest]

Dear friends,

Some material on PSA test was seen yesterday on this list. Next is

the turn of mammograms. How reliable they are can be checked at:

 

http://www.forbes.com/lifestyle/health/feeds/hscout/2005/07/19/hscout5

26935.html

[Copy and paste the link in browser window]

However, since this link is very difficult to reach and takes very

long time, important portions are included here:

 

 

Study: Mammos May Not Halt Breast Cancer Deaths

By Kathleen Doheny

HealthDay Reporter

 

 

TUESDAY, July 19 (HealthDay News) -- A real-world look at the

benefits of breast cancer screenings has turned up some dismaying

news: Screening rates for women who died from the disease were no

different from the screening rates of those who were cancer-free.

 

The U.S. researchers who conducted the study, however, hastened to

add that women should not stop getting routine mammograms and

clinical breast exams based on these findings.

 

"Women should continue current screening as recommended," said lead

researcher Dr. Joann G. Elmore, a professor of medicine at the

University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle.

 

The study appears in the July 20 issue of the Journal of the National

Cancer Institute.

 

"We did a case-control study," Elmore explained. "As the cases, we

evaluated women who died of breast cancer, and as the controls, women

who were matched for age and [similar] risk factors."

 

The researchers wanted to examine the theory that, if screening for

breast cancer really works to prevent women from dying of the

disease, women still living should have had more screenings than

women who died .

 

In all, Elmore's team looked at screening data on 1,351 women who

died from breast cancer between 1983 and 1998, and compared it to

data on 2,501 breast cancer-free women. All of the women received

their regular care through six health plans in California,

Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oregon and Washington.

 

They found that 69.8 percent of women aged 50 to 65 with an average

risk for breast cancer who died from the disease had gotten

mammograms, breast exams or both within the previous three years. For

cancer-free women of similar age and risk, the percentage was almost

identical: 69.2

 

Elmore's team did find a 26 percent reduction in breast cancer

mortality associated with screenings in a subgroup of women at above-

average risk for the disease due to family history or prior

suspicious biopsy results. However, the number was not high enough to

be statistically significant, the researchers noted.

 

The Seattle researcher was quick to emphasize that this does not mean

women should stop getting mammograms. The findings are

understandable, she said, when you consider that current

recommendations for mammograms are based on data that was produced in

the carefully controlled trials.

 

This new data comes from real-world situations, and Elmore believes

one reason the results fall short of ideal is that the quality of

community screenings is lower than those typically used in clinical

trials.

 

Another factor, Elmore said, may be that new treatments have improved

survival rates after breast cancer is detected, regardless of how it

was detected or how often a woman went for screening.

 

Dr. Russell Harris, a professor of medicine at the University of

North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who wrote the accompanying editorial,

noted, "What women should understand is that this study is

researchers talking to researchers. It is not a matter of

saying 'Women should stop getting screened.'"

 

The issue to be discussed, he added, is whether there are ways to

make breast cancer screening even better.

 

"It may well be that in some places screening doesn't find all the

cancer it should find, or it could be that some women are not being

screened as they need to be," he said.

 

"Screening is only part of the story," he said. "Screening is the

first step. All these other steps [such as a biopsy, if necessary]

have to work."

 

Elmore agreed. Women should continue going for their annual mammogram

or clinical breast exam, "but they should realize that screening is

not perfect or foolproof. They need to pay attention to their bodies.

There are false negatives."

 

To improve the effectiveness of screening, "go to the same mammogram

facility each year," Elmore advised. "They may have old films

available for comparison. If you are having a period, ideally, go

after your period, when the breast puffiness is gone."

 

Don't forget to get a clinical breast exam, too, she said. "A high

quality screening breast exam [by a health care provider] should take

no more than seconds."

 

 

 

WE need serious thinking now. When there is no fool proof test and

one has to go through further testing/biopsy etc. what about the fear

psychosis/anxiety generated tumors? (see message no. 4268) The author

feels that the diagnostic tests is a magic stick used by modern

science to trap more and more persons in the net, whether they are

really sick or not. The screening reference ranges are arrived at by

statistical theories. If health becomes the subject of mathematics,

computers and image processing softwares, human beings can be ruled

out from the process of diagnosis.

 

Moral of the story is, if you wish to be happy, keep yourself away

from diagnostics and flock in churches, temples, ashrams etc doing meditation.

 

Dr Bhate