Many Women With Breast Cancer Treated Needlessly
Many women with breast cancer detected by a mammogram are treated unnecessarily, because screening tests found slow-growing tumors that are essentially harmless.
One in three women with breast cancer detected by a mammogram is treated unnecessarily, because screening tests found slow-growing tumors that are essentially harmless. That’s according to a Danish study, published in Annals of Internal Medicine, that has renewed debate over the value of early detection.
The study raises the uncomfortable possibility that some women who believe their lives were saved by mammograms were actually harmed by surgery, radiation and even chemotherapy they didn’t need, said Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society. He wrote an accompanying editorial but was not involved in the study.
Researchers increasingly
