While roughly 15 percent of women in their 40's detect breast cancer through mammography, many other women experience false positives, anxiety, and unnecessary biopsies as a result of the test, according to the data. In fact, a full decade ago, a Danish study published in The Lancet concluded that previous research showing a benefit of mammograms was flawed and that widespread mammogram screening is unjustified.
That mammograms are still recommended at all speaks volumes about the state of modern medicine...
Mammograms expose your body to radiation that can be 1,000 times greater than that from a chest x-ray, which poses risks of cancer. Mammography also compresses your breasts tightly (and often painfully), which could lead to a lethal spread of cancerous cells, should they exist.
In April 2011, the prestigious Cochrane Collaboration chimed in, saying mammography screening may cause more harm than good8. For their informative leaflet, please see the following link. Even more provocative is the new book, Mammography Screening: Truth, Lies and Controversy by Peter C. Gøtzsche, Professor of Clinical Research Design and Analysis Director at The Nordic Cochrane Centre, and Chief Physician. The very first paragraph of the book's ad reads9:
"The most effective way to decrease women's risk of becoming a breast cancer patient is to avoid attending screening."
Now, that's a bold statement! And it's backed up by facts. According to the Cochrane Collaboration, for every 2,000 women invited for screening over the course of 10 years, just ONE woman will have her life prolonged. Meanwhile, 10 healthy women, who would not have been diagnosed with cancer had it not been for the mammography screening, will be misdiagnosed as having breast cancer, and will be treated unnecessarily. Additionally, more than 200 women will experience significant psychological distress for many months due to false positives.
Congressional Hearing on Mammography Cover-Up is Overdue
Folks, this is a major story, and it's about to get much bigger... There's loads of powerful and damning information out there that can, and will, be used to call for a congressional hearing on the mammography cover-up. Decades ago, in 1974, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) was warned by professor Malcolm C. Pike at the University of Southern California School of Medicine that a number of specialists had concluded that "giving a women under age 50 a mammogram on a routine basis is close to unethical."
And in the 1990's, Dr. Samuel Epstein started warning people about the dangers of mammography, stating:
"The premenopausal breast is highly sensitive to radiation, each 1 rad exposure increasing breast cancer risk by about 1 percent, with a cumulative 10 percent increased risk for each breast over a decade's screening... The high sensitivity of the breast, especially in young women, to radiation-induced cancer was known by 1970. Nevertheless, the establishment then screened some 300,000 women with X-ray dosages so high as to increase breast cancer risk by up to 20 percent in women aged 40 to 50 who were mammogramed annually."
Since then, concerned FDA doctors and scientists have issued a number of written warnings in the form of letters to various authorities, such as the October 2008 letter to Representative Dingell, notifying him of corruption within the FDA, which sparked a House Energy and Commerce Committee investigation into Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) activities. 4
A second letter, sent in January 2009 to HHS Secretary-Designate Tom Daschle, Baltimore City Health Department Chief Joshua Sharfstein, and nine members of Congress, delved into more detail. According to Medical Devices Today5:
"In the case of an April 2008 approval of a computer-aided detection device for mammography, the scientists specifically charge (by title, but not by name) ODE Director Donna-Bea Tillman "and her subordinates" with the "most outrageous misconduct by ordering, coercing, and intimidating FDA physicians and scientists to recommend approval, and then retaliating when the physicians and scientists refused to go along."
The letter also includes a bullet-pointed list of nine "examples of wrongdoing" by the ODE Director, including ordering physicians and scientists to ignore FDA guidance documents and allowing manufacturers to market unapproved devices."
In October that same year (2009), the US Preventative Task Force revised its recommendations on mammograms,6 stating that women in their 40's should no longer get routine mammograms for early detection of breast cancer. Instead, the panel recommended waiting until the age of 50, and only doing one mammogram every other year, instead of yearly. They also suggested women between 40 to 49 should talk to their doctor about the risks and benefits of the test, and then decide if they want to be screened. The Canadian task force followed suit in November last year.7
Many cancer organizations were outraged and have shunned the task forces' new directive; completely ignoring the data supporting their decision... The main reason behind the changed guidelines? The inherent dangers and short-comings of mammographic screening...
Story at-a-glance
- The FDA secretly monitored the personal e-mail of a group of agency whistleblowers for two years. All of the monitored employees worked in the office responsible for reviewing medical devices, including those for cancer screenings and were expressing concerns over several devices. Some of the employees were harassed and/or terminated, and six of them are now suing the agency
- There’s a lot of compelling evidence that the dangers of mammography are being covered up, and that a Congressional hearing is well overdue
- While roughly 15 percent of women in their 40’s detect breast cancer through mammography, many other women experience false positives, anxiety, and unnecessary biopsies as a result of the test, according to the data. In fact, a full decade ago, a Danish study published in The Lancet concluded that previous research showing a benefit of mammograms was flawed and thatwidespread mammogram screening is unjustified.
- According to the Cochrane Collaboration, for every 2,000 women getting mammography screening over the course of 10 years, just ONE woman will have her life prolonged. Meanwhile, 10 healthy women, who would not have been diagnosed with cancer had it not been for the mammography screening, will be misdiagnosed as having breast cancer, and will be treated unnecessarily
To read the rest of this absolutely important article by Dr. Mercola, click HERE
