33% women undergoing breast cancer treatment needlessly: Study
POSTED July 10, 2009 - 06:49 | POSTED BY Jyoti Pal
Last edited by Sham Kamboj on August 12, 2009 - 13:12
The findings suggest that a good 33 percent of the women may thus be undergoing needless breast cancer treatment.
However, such ‘overdiagnosis’ and subsequent unnecessary treatment is unavoidable as there is no proven method of distinguishing between lethal and harmless tumors at the outset.
The debate on screening reopens
The latest study, conducted by a team from the Nordic Cochrane Centre in Copenhagen, Denmark, analyzed rates of cancer in five countries: Britain, Canada, Australia, Sweden and Norway.
Breast cancer trends were looked into prior to and subsequent to the commencement of government-aided screening programmes in all these countries.
The findings revealed that the total overdiagnosis, including a pre-malignant condition called carcinoma in situ, was between 52 percent and 57 percent in Britain. The level of over-diagnosis was similar in all five countries.
Dr Karsten Jorgensen noted, “Screening for cancer may lead to earlier detection of lethal cancers, but also detects harmless ones that will not cause death or symptoms.”
"The detection of such cancers, which would not have been identified clinically in someone's remaining lifetime, is called overdiagnosis and can only be harmful to those who experience it," he added.
The routine breast screening has the tendency to throw up a high rate of 'false positives' as it is not sensitive enough to identify the dangerous lump and the safe lump.
Reactions to the study
H Gilbert Welch, professor of medicine at the Dartmouth Institute in the U.S., opined, “Mammography undoubtedly helps some women, but hurts others. No right answer exists, instead it is a personal choice.”
Julietta Patnick, director of the NHS Cancer Screening Programmes, noted that one in eight women were diagnosed with breast cancer through the NHS Breast Screening Programme.
She said, “Screening reduces cancer mortality through early detection, making treatment more likely to be effective. We believe the benefits of early detection still outweigh the risks.”
