Reply #93: I don't' think that's been a part of any of the studies, however,

[JenniferJuniper]

It does all come down to money. The mammography industry alone is a multi-billion dollar one. And the breast cancer treatment industry? Can't imagine.

The over-diagnosis is related in large part to the sensitivity of mammography (MRIs can be even more sensitive. I know very little about thermography). More cancers are found and treated as a result of rigorous, yearly screening. A very few women's lives are indeed actually saved by non-symptomatic mammography screening, but far more are being treated for a condition that will never kill them, indeed if never detected they may well have died of old age never knowing of it's existence. Here's a chart that helps illustrate. It's staggering to think that of 1,000 women screened over 10 years, only one will actually have her life saved by those years of screening. We don't know what happened to the 2 - 10 who were treated needlessly, but no doubt some were quite seriously, perhaps fatally, harmed. And other studies say the over-diagnosis rate may be over 50%.

"In an effort to provide physicians and their patients with a "balance sheet" of the harms and benefits of mammography, Dr. Welch included a tabular display along with his editorial. The credits and debits are for every 1000 women undergoing annual mammography for 10 years starting at the age of 50 years.

1 woman will avoid dying from breast cancer

2–10 women will be over-diagnosed and treated needlessly

10–15 women will be told they have breast cancer earlier than they would otherwise have been told, but this will not affect their prognosis

100–500 women will have at least 1 "false alarm" (about half these women will undergo biopsy)."

http://cancerology.blogspot.com/2009/07/breast-cancer-overdiagnosed-with.html

I'm not anti-mammograms. But I'd give serious consideration before getting involved with routine asymptomatic mammography screening. Seek and ye shall find. Unfortunately, we cannot differentiate between what needs to be found and what does not. And that's were the money needs to be going.