Medical Myth #4: Mammograms

Once again Dr. Newman’s research has found some astounding findings.  Here are some summary statements from his research regarding mammograms:

Roughly 25 percent or more of cancers are missed.
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So how often do mammograms produce false positives? The cumulative risk of having a false-positive mammogram in ten years is 50 percent; therefore half of women undergoing regular mammograms for ten years will receive a positive result that is incorrect. Indeed, 97 percent of positive mammograms are false rather than true.

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During ten years of mammograms about 20 percent of women, or one in every five, will have a false positive that leads to a biopsy.

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For every 10,000 women screened routinely over ten years, it has been estimated that one case of breast cancer is caused by the radiation.
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 Having mammograms was of no benefit at all.
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 Women were alive and surviving at the same rate whether they had been assigned to receive mammograms or not.
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finding cancer earlier may not always be the answer. In the case of breast cancer a large proportion of cancerous lumps, perhaps 25 percent or more, are slow-growing and may therefore never lead

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In the case of breast cancer a large proportion of cancerous lumps, perhaps 25 percent or more, are slow-growing and may therefore never lead to serious danger.

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That regular breast exams are a better screening tool than mammograms is a suggestion that has been made before, convincingly.

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In summary:

mammograms do not appear from the research to have any benefit

regular breast exams are a better screening tool