
The Pros and Cons of Mammograms
Fact boxes can quantify benefits and harms in a clear and accessible format.
Image Credit: Elías Alarcón / Pixabay. This image has been modified.
Fact boxes can quantify benefits and harms in a clear and accessible format.
If doctors don’t understand health statistics, how can they possibly properly counsel patients?
“Early” detection is actually really late. Without mammograms, breast cancer may not be caught for an average of 22.8 years. With mammograms, though, breast cancer may only grow and spread for…21.4 years.
After you watch this video, you’ll know more than an estimated 97 percent of doctors about a critical concept called lead-time bias.
What do nine in ten women say they were never told about mammograms, even though they thought they had the right to know?
Nine out of ten women don’t realize that some breast cancers would never have caused any problems or even become known in one’s lifetime. This is an issue ductal carcinoma in situ has brought to the forefront.
The mammogram paradox is that women who are harmed the most are the ones who claim the greatest benefit.
What is the risk-benefit ratio of the cancers picked up by mammograms and the cancers caused by mammograms?
Excessive breast compression during mammography may not improve image quality and can cause unnecessary pain.
Odds are most women will get at least one false-positive mammogram, but, thankfully, most women who are called back for further testing of a suspicious mammogram finding do not end up having cancer after all.