Is breast cancer being over-diagnosed?
There is no question that the advent and spread of mammograms led to an increase in early detection of breast cancer, and that early detection and diagnosis of cancer has been proven to result in better treatment outcomes and longer survival times.
However, when reviewing statistical information for breast cancer something about the numbers doesn’t quite add up.
According to research published in the November 22, 2012 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, screening mammography correlated with a doubling of cases of early-stage breast cancer detected each year (from 112 to 234 cases per 100,000 women). At the same time there was only an 8 percent decrease in the rate at which women are diagnosed with late-stage cancer (from 102 to 94 cases per 100,000 women).
There are only two ways to explain these numbers: either the incidence of breast cancer is growing at an alarming rate – which does not appear to be the case – or many women who do not have cancer at all are told they have it.