Screening Mammograms, A Closer Look at the Data

An article by Laura Esserman published in JAMA questions screening mammography. Dr Esserman reviewed 20 years of data and concludes mammogram screening programs have "significant drawbacks and expected survival benefits have not materialized. While the incidence of early stage breast cancer has decreased due to mammography, the incidence rates for the killer cancers, (the advanced cancers) have remained stable. While it is true that overall mortality rates have declined slightly, this is attributed to better treatment rather than increased detection."

Let's take a look at the Data Charts Dr Esserman used for her JAMA Article. (see below)

Below Image Courtesy of Rethinking Screening for Breast Cancer and Prostate Cancer Laura Esserman, MD, JAMA. 2009;302(15):1685-1692.

The above chart shows the critical information in Dr Esserman's JAMA article. The Pink line is TOTAL breast cancer incidence annually. Note increase incidence beginning in 1983 with introduction of mammography screening. Below the pink line, we see three more lines: this is the breakdown of the total incidence into localized, regional and metastatic cases. The turquoise line is localized cancer. The Light purple line is regional cancer and the black line (lowest) is metastatic cancer. The killer cancers are the regional and metastatic cases. Note that these numbers have remained stable with little change in spite of detection of massive numbers of localized cases.

Read article at: http://www.drdach.com