Don’t you worry about those lumps. It’s probably just a false positive, dear.
Most women don’t need a mammogram in their 40s and should get one every two years starting at 50, a government task force said Monday. It’s a major reversal that conflicts with the American Cancer Society’s long-standing position.
Also, the task force said breast self-exams do no good and women shouldn’t be taught to do them.
For most of the past two decades, the cancer society has been recommending annual mammograms beginning at 40.
But the government panel of doctors and scientists concluded that getting screened for breast cancer so early and so often leads to too many false alarms and unneeded biopsies without substantially improving women’s odds of survival.
…..
The new advice was sharply challenged by the cancer society.
“This is one screening test I recommend unequivocally, and would recommend to any woman 40 and over,” the society’s chief medical officer, Dr. Otis Brawley, said in a statement.
The task force advice is based on its conclusion that screening 1,300 women in their 50s to save one life is worth it, but that screening 1,900 women in their 40s to save a life is not, Brawley wrote.
That stance “is essentially telling women that mammography at age 40 to 49 saves lives, just not enough of them,” he said. The cancer society feels the benefits outweigh the harms for women in both groups.
Well, when you let your members get bought off by a government body who is hoping to run the healthcare of hundreds of millions, they need to come up with something to keep the costs down, you see.
I have seen nothing of this on the leftosphere, either for the panel’s decision or criticizing it. I know that like the rightosphere, they count more than a few breast cancer survivors.
And yet nothing.
You won’t see it either, because the righty cancer survivors are decent people who don’t want to get in anyone’s face, and the leftoids KNOW that this is just the first glimpse into the dirty little healthcare rationing secret that Obamacare holds for us all.
This one will get swept under the rug.
Enlightened self-interest (that Randian thing) says scream it from the rooftops, but my money’s on it not getting whispered about, let alone screamed about.
“…and the leftoids KNOW that this is just the first glimpse into the dirty little healthcare rationing secret that Obamacare holds for us all.”
Actually they’re currently blaming this upon the insurance industry, saying paying for more screenings is/will cutting into their profit margins. They don’t see it as gvt. cutting costs by rationing out health care.
Remember: if you’re a liberal/progressive, blame capitalism before blaming government.
The task force said 10% of the mammograms caused false positives. So a 90% positive rate is inconsequential?
WTF are the women not sharpening their blades?