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posts about #screening more →
Study: Mammograms May Lead To Overtreatment Of Harmless Cancers
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Study: Mammograms May Lead To Overtreatment Of Harmless Cancers |
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@NellMood: My aunt, 42, was recently in this dilemma herself. They found cells that COULD be cancerous in her uterus. After dealing most of her life with fibroids, she underwent a complete hysterectomy and chemo and (as I'm sure you're aware) that shit is like a tour in 'Nam.
She made the right decision for her but even at that young age, I don't know that it would have been the right decision for me. I think "When in doubt, treat it" is probably the best stance to take, but I think we should reassess how we define "doubt."
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It's just so hard to know what you would do until you're in that situation. I assume that I would want to aggressively treat everything, because of my family history and growing up in family where cancer treatment was my father's livelihood. That said, I don't know what I would do in a situation where my uterus would be removed in treatment based on a diagnosis of "could be cancerous." I hope I never have to face a choice like that, but I think many of us probably will.
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@NellMood: Absolutely. It's like when women go on about EXACTLY how a birth experience is going to go before they're even preggers. And thank you: my aunt is doing beautifully (and her super-short hair is adorable).
@NefariousNewt: Yeah. Technology and knowledge being what it is, we're acting accordingly but, unfortunately, it's inevitable that in some cases we may be doing more harm than good even though we're making the best decisions available to us.
08/17/09
Well, that's fine, but I don't think it's necessary to put this information out there as definitive, before some adjustment to the screening process has been attempted. If there is an over-diagnosis, then work needs to be done on tweaking the mammogram, or creating a new, less obtrusive test that can find that types of breast cancer that are troublesome. This may just lead to some women reducing their screenings unnecessarily and causing breast cancer rates to increase.
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The trick, though, is trying to figure out which are that kind, so they can be left alone, or which are the kind that are aggressive and can kill in less than a year.
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