Researchers diagnosed 16 million women in the US.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: New findings have indicated that mammography screening has led to the overdiagnosis of breast cancer, according to a new study in JAMA Internal Medicine published Monday.
The researchers, from Harvard and Dartmouth, observed data from 16 million women in 547 U.S. counties in 2000 via the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results registry, according to the L.A. Times.
More than 53,000 were diagnosed with breast cancer that year. As expected, the researchers found that the number of breast cancer diagnoses rose with more aggressive screenings.
The unexpected variable was that the number of deaths remained the same, and the researchers argue that the findings suggest “widespread overdiagnosis.”
Just last month, researchers from the University of Copenhagen warned of the psychological strain of false-positive mammograms in a study in the journal Annals of Family Medicine, reported the Washington Post. They found that even when women are told that the initial diagnosis was wrong, they still show signs of stress and depression several years later.
The researchers agreed that people should “be wary” of studies like theirs that examine populations instead of individuals, reported the L.A. Times, “However, decisions must be made based on the evidence that is available,” they wrote, and “overdiagnosis is currently not observable in individuals, only in populations.”
The magnitude of that problem is yet unknown. Some studies estimate that more than half of breast cancers diagnosed as a result of screening mammograms are overdiagnosed, while others put the figure below 10 percent, according to the study’s commentary.
“Sadly, we are left in a conundrum,” the commentary authors wrote. “Women will increasingly approach their physicians with questions and concerns about overdiagnosis, and we have no clear answers to provide.”