“New” Mammogram Study?
This past week the Journal of the American Medical Association reported supposedly “new” findings about which age groups of women should have mammograms. Now they are generally suggesting that women in their 40’s and women above 70 do not need to get annual screening mammograms. Only one problem: this is not news!
Years ago in my Better Health Update #46 “Mammograms–Yes or No” (read at http://www.pacifichealthcenter.com/blog/46-mammograms-yes-or-no/) I reported the following:
- “Dr. Suzanne W. Fletcherof of the American College of Physicians also reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute that for women age 40 to 49 there is no survival benefit to obtaining routine mammograms.”
- “No benefits have been found for mammography of women over age 69.”
I don’t want to break my arm patting myself on the back, but how come I knew of these research findings 10 years ago and JAMA just figured it out last week?
As referred to in others posts on this blog, treatments are “marketed” by the conventional medical/drug establishment. If you’re going to spend large amounts of money on mammogram machines, you have to convince women that they need this procedure, which in and of itself increases the risk of breast cancer. But I guess eventually, even which such a “sacred cow” as mammography, someone is going to say, “The Emperor has no clothes!” I just glad I said that years before JAMA caught on.
– Monte Kline