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Breast Cancer Overdiagnosis Estimated at 31%, Say Researchers

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Breast cancer screening programs using mammograms have led to 1.3 million women aged 40 and up to be overdiagnosed with breast cancer over the last thirty-two years, according to a study appearing in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The implication is that mammographic screening programs have been detecting early-stage breast cancer but has been having little effect on the detection of late-stage disease, thus leading to the unnecessary treatment of cancers that would likely have never caused serious disease, according to researchers at the Oregon Health and Science University and Dartmouth University.

The study, which predictably has caused plenty of controversy, looked at incidence of early-stage breast cancer (specifically ductal carcinoma in situ and localized disease) as well as advanced-stage breast cancer (both regional and metastatic disease) in a patient population aged 40 and over from 1976 through 2008.

The rates of breast cancer mortality in the US is on the decline, but despite the finding that screening isn't nearly so effective as some in the cancer community would like others to believe, these researchers also suggest that a further implication of these findings is that therapeutic modalities are getting more and more effective.

They ultimately estimate the rate of overdiagnosis of breast cancer as being 31%, an estimation broadly disputed by the American College of Radiology and the Society of Breast Imaging, as well as some doctors at MD Anderson Cancer Center, which suggest that worst case scenario, the rate is nearer to 10%.

Source: MedPage Today

 

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