Mammography: Why This Test Is Both Imperfect And Recommended
A well-written and balanced article on mammography from USA Today may help move the conversation about this screening test away from hype and a bit closer to reality. The title – “Mammogram is ‘terribly imperfect’, though recommended.”
For women in their 40s, mammograms reduce the risk of dying from breast cancer by about 15%… But mammograms miss some cancers and raise false alarms about others, causing women to go through unnecessary follow-up tests… “We’re saying, ‘Mammography is a terribly imperfect test, but we’re recommending women get it,’” Brawley says. “The task force was saying, ‘Mammography is a terribly imperfect test, and women have to make a decision about whether to get it in their 40s.’”
I encourage all women to read and share this article.
What I love about the article is how clearly written, non-inflammatory and concise it is, proving that the mainstream media can get it right when it comes to health information. The article also includes a fabulous summary graph that is simple to interpret and very clearly conveys just what it is mammograms can and cannot do when it comes to preventing deaths from breast cancer.
_________________________________________
More reading on mammograms from TBTAM and elsewhere
- The New Mammogram Guidelines – What you need to know.
- Another well-done story, by CNN, on the mammogram controversy
- Mammograms – what women want. But is it for the right reasons?
- ACOG’s Mammogram recommendations – not what you’d think
- Preventing Breast Cancer Deaths – How much credit does mammography get?
- USPSTF breast cancer screening recommendations
- American Cancer Society response to the USPSTF Mammogram Guidelines
- American College of Radiology response to the USPSTF guidelines
- The Secret History of Mammography – by Devra Davis, pHd at Huff Post.
- Mammogram Math at the NY Times – Understanding the numbers
- The Numbers Guy at the WSJ looks at the data.
- USA Today looks at breast cancer mortality numbers in women ages 40-49
- The Mammogram Post-Mortem by Dr Val – an insightful analysis of the media meltdown
- NPR, Dr Isis and Orac on the USPSTF Guidelines and African American Women
*This blog post was originally published at The Blog That Ate Manhattan*
Return to article »