What women really know…
Do women fully understand the pros and cons of an annual screening mammogram? Studies suggest they do not.
A 2000 survey of 479 women without a personal history of breast cancer found that only 8% knew that a mammogram could harm a woman (by subjecting her to treatments she didn’t need) and nearly all (94%) did not know that some early-stage breast cancers do not progress.
Likewise, a survey of more than 10,200 Europeans published Aug. 12 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute found that 92% of the women surveyed dramatically overestimated the ability of mammography to cut cancer deaths or said they didn’t know the magnitude of its benefits.
Here’s how the benefits and risks stack up.
If 1,000 50-year-old women have a yearly mammogram for 10 years:
* One will avoid dying from breast cancer.
* Two to 10 will be treated for a cancer that never would have harmed them.
* Ten to 15 will learn earlier that they have cancer than they would have otherwise, but this earlier diagnosis will not change their prognosis.
* One hundred to 500 will have at least one false alarm.
Source: The Los Angeles Times
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Tags: mammogram
