Is it possible that not all breast cancer is bad news?
Yes, it’s true.
Many women are overdiagnosed and treated for breast cancer that would never cause a problem for them throughout their entire lives if left alone according to a recent article published in the Medical Journal of Australia.
Associate Professor Robin Bell of Monash University in Australia, says:
“Overdiagnosis amounts to women having a small, slow-growing cancer being diagnosed and treated, where in her lifetime that cancer may not have required treatment.”
Professor Bell is calling for a more balanced approach to breast cancer screening which fully informs women of the harm of breast cancer screening/treatment versus the very small or negligible benefits of treatment for such slow growing, nonlifethreatening breast cancers.
A 2010 study found that for every 2000 women screened over a 10 year period, only one woman would have her life prolonged as a result of the screenings yet 10 women would be treated unnecessarily.
The results of this study certainly put in the spotlight whether mammography has any benefit whatsoever particularly given that the radiation exposing screening method causes breast cancer itself!
They certainly don’t seem like very appealing odds to me!
As a middle aged woman who has never had a mammogram nor plans to ever have one (following in the footsteps of my 86 year old mother who has refused them all her life), this study adds further evidence of the wisdom of such an out of the box decision.
It would behoove women given the dire diagnosis of breast cancer to delve into whether their breast cancer really and truly requires treatment or would in fact be better left alone. At the very least, a second or even a third opinion would seem warranted.
Sometimes bad news might not really be bad news after all.
UPDATE: A far better way to screen safely for breast cancer and avoid the misdiagnosis potential of mammograms is to get annual breast ultrasound screening. How to do this without a prescription and the 7 benefits to health in doing so are provided in the linked article. Breast thermography is another safe, effective, no radiation tool for cancer screening that does not result in overtreatment or misdiagnosis.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Sources and More Information
Benefits of Cancer Screening Exaggerated
Women Overdiagnosed with Breast Cancer
170 Scientific Studies Confirm the Dangers of Soy
The Dangers of Estrogenic Foods, Herbs and Supplements to Breast Health
Komen (Not) for the Cure: The Complete and Utter Pinkwashing of America
Thermography: A Perfect Alternative to Cancer Causing Mammograms?
Why Even Organic Soy Formula is so Dangerous for Babies
How the Birth Control Pill Can Harm Your Future Child’s Health
that’s why I don’t want to be tested for breast cancer…
Am I reading this right? Ten, of the 2000 that are screened, are treated for cancer. And, of those 10, only one had her life prolonged by the treatment?
I am 39 and never plan on getting mammograms either. I cannot wait for your post about thermograms as I have heard of those being a good alternative. I just try to focus on prevention and staying healthy and researching natural protocols for “if” cancer ever shows up. I am reading a book right now called Cancer: Step Outside the Box and it is incredible. Highly recommend it. It is very thick and the first part delves into the concern you mention, money and fraud. It is filled with natural treatements that have proven results too. Very eye opening book. Saves me hours of research.
Nickole
Thanxs for this article. Your question in regard to overzealous mammograms likely causing the cancer it is finding looks to be correct. Go to the Health Ranger site at NaturalNews.com. for more info. Further all woman need to make sure that they are getting adequate amounts of iodine and B-12, these items inhibit breast cancer. Get the book on amazon called, “Could It Be B12?: An Epidemic of Misdiagnoses by Sally M. Pacholok RN and Jeffrey J. Stuart DO (Jan 26, 2011)” for more info.
Grassfed raw butter is loaded with iodine 🙂
I’m thinking about this right now as our local farm’s winter rye grass has come in and the butter is turning deep deep yellow as the cows come off the hay ration. My favorite butter of the year.
Do you consider Kerrygold to be loaded with iodine? I don’t think it’s from raw milk.
Sarah
I had breast cancer some 17 years ago. Treated with lumpectomy and radiation therapy. Had I known what I know now, I would have told them to bog off. I found the lump myself and was whisked off to hospital before I could take a second breath. The internet was not so developed then otherwise I don’t think I would have allowed that to happen. Breast cancer is severely overrated – it can be healed naturally – what the medics do as ‘treatment’ is a total scam. I was also put on the poison Tamoxifen but refused to take it after only a month. I never have mammograms now but have had two ultrasounds, the last about 7 years ago.
If you’re ever diagnosed with cancer please get lots of opinions and thoroughly research all the alternatives and ditch the Tamoxifen!
Sarah,
You are right on with all that you said! Keep speakin’ it!! One problem with the mammogram stuff is that the doctors are only “practicing” – and they are practicing on US!!! AND the interpretation of what they think they are seeing in those tests can change over time (look at the PSAs for men now… they are doubting the validity/usefulness of those too.) I’ve chosen not to have the mammograms done (mid-60’s now ) and I don’t plan to change that. It can be hard to go against the doctors’ recommendations–hard in the sense that they try to pressure you to get them done, and when you don’t, they “write you up” as a non-compliant patient to protect themselves, but, oh well, I have had many of those notes in MY med. records over the years– as did my kids when I refused crazy recommendations for them as well! The bigger problem for me is that when docs find cancer, their only choices to deal with it involve trying to “kill” it — and, as long as THAT is their approach to it, there will be limited success in healing people. Plus, the things they do to “treat” actually weaken the immune system, the very thing that is needed to HELP the body recover! The traditional Amer. med. system is so backwards and upside-down!!! I appreciate your blog, Sarah! People like you NEED to stir the pot! Like you said, someone has to stand up and challenge the status quo before change will happen. Thanks for what you do!!!
My dad died of prostate cancer met to the bone in 1998. Even tho I had worked in medicine for 20 years, nothing prepared me for the emotional roller coaster that kept our family sitting on pins and needles for the results of every test for 5 years. The PSA was held as the standard and even tho my dad was willing to try alternative medicine and got a great report after it, he gave in to the doctor who insisted that because his PSA was still too high we should use a more aggressive chemo. He began his descent after that horrible round of poison and died 5 months later. Now, they do not use the PSA as the directing standard and we have also come to find out that the chemo used was incredibly TOXIC and as a side effect causes cancer! Who do I blame? I still miss my dad every single day and I have already gone thru the “blame” stage. I accept that he is gone and as a christian, I believe I will see him again. Back to breast cancer…I absolutely agree with you Sarah. This whole game is about money and we must be our own advocates and do our research NOW, before we need it.. I am not saying that there aren’t caring, intelligent doctors involved, but a lot of them haven’t been taught what their real options are! At the very least, we can help each other when something like this completely blindsides us. Thank you again for having no fear in telling the TRUTH about this industry.
I am 60 and have had a few mammograms off from 40 to 50 but 10 years ago when I read about the amount of radiation that one’s breast get in all the years that a mammogram is doneand I will never have another one. I am prone to cysts at which I have to hold my right NOT to get a mammogram and ask for an ultrasound. Doctors have a fit trying to talk me into a mammogram and have no understanding beyond the common medical program of getting a mammogram. So far I have won out —even going to a different doctor with the last bout of cysts. When I told this last doctor I would NOT do a mammogram he refused to talk to me any further, nearly in a huff and throwing his hands up in the air said there was nothing more and I had to get a mammogram. I left the office and will never go back. If a doctor can no longer think outside the box or for themselves they are in my opinion worthless idiots.
I’ll bet that doctor is making some serious buckaroos off the mammograms of his patients. I don’t intend to sound cynical, but it is what it is. I would never go to a GYN who was making money on the side from mammograms. Serious conflict of interest. Just like the docs who get kickbacks for drugs. I wrote a post about this too with all kinds of charts:
https://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/is-your-doctor-getting-drug-kickbacks/
You know, I thought I had gone back through the posts on this this blog, but I keep finding things I missed – thanks for the link.
I have a small hot spot that thermography found. My ND thought maybe an ultrasound could be a good idea, but the local hospital WILL NOT perform an ultrasound for me without having a mammogram first. So no ultrasound, which I feel ok about. I have another thermography in a month.
Try a standalone ultrasound center independent of the local hospital. Another option, get DO to write you a script for just the ultrasound.
My Grandmother used to always say, I’m leaving with everything I came with. In S. American culture, at least in the past, people were VERY resistant to giving up a body part. Too bad it’s not the same here. We would make the establishment come up with a better argument than ‘fear’ based on uncertainty. Women who make that tragic decision have to believe truly in their hearts that they did the right thing, so there won’t be any support for change there.
KB,
Not sure what your comments are in reference to, but for hysterectomy in this country, it is the practice for benign gynecological conditions, unconfirmed cancer, and confirmed cancer and has nothing to do with women’s beliefs.
Well doesn’t it? I mean for a woman to have a hysterectomy, wouldn’t she have to believe it was in her best interests to do so? Why else do it? Instead, if you have the belief that it’s a bad thing to lose a part of your anatomy, you’d refuse the procedure and look at alternative ways of dealing with whatever your problem is. If I don’t “believe” I need to get something done, I sure as heck wouldn’t get it done.
Because hysterectomy is a practice by the medical community, women only know about the marketing claims. Hysterectomy is marketed as a routine (safe) gynocological surgery that is necessary for routine and cancerous female conditions. and it results in only lost of reproduction and menustration and possibly causes surgical menopause. This information is misleading and given that women are not provided accurate information about the procedure, nor about the female anatomy, it cannot be said that this is simply about whether a women believes she needs something done that’s in her best interest. Instead at a vulnerable time in her life, she is given a diagnosis and given a recommendation of hysterectomy or told she does not have another choice. Women are very capable of choosing what’s in thier best interest, as long as they are presented with the facts upon which to make an informed choice.
I don’t think anyone is being flippant about not having mammorgrams. I would expect anyone taking that position has thought about this procedure and have made certain decision about their current health and also how they will respond to their future health. My decision comes out of the fact that I have experience where the treatment cost me much more than the disease. For me, cancer is not the boogy-man this society protrays (nor any disease), and I will apply all the health promoting tactics at my disposal. That’s the best treatment I can give to myself.
http://archive.unu.edu/unupress/unupbooks/uu05se/uu05se0d.htm
Thank you for the link. What a fascinating read!
You are welcome, I especially like the ending (as document is long) which states:
The medical idee fixe (dominate idea), that when everybody gives some therapy it must be right, is scientifically wrong, be it in cancerology, cardiology, diabetology or arthrology. What has not seeped into the medical and lay consciousness is that, for intrinsic diseases, there is no therapy and, for extrinsic diseases, the body often recovers on its own. Then it goes into 10 very important points to be kept in mind when approaching any treatment.
Women need to be aware how their choices are denied/limited due to medical practices: http://www.pep-web.org/document.php?id=jaa.032.0181a