Mammograms...what you might not know

I have been reading some studies done in the New England Journal of Medicine and in Lancet.  For those who do not know, Lancet is a world renowned medical journal published in England.  The researchers on "both side of the pond," appear to have come up with the same results when studying the efficacy of mammograms.  Here is a synopsis of their findings:

Mammograms: For 1 life saved, 3 over diagnosed By Maria Cheng, The Associated Press

In Britain, mammograms are usually offered to women aged 50 to 70 every three years as part of the state-funded breast cancer screening  program. 
Scientists said the British program saves about 1,300 women every year from dying of breast cancer while about 4,000 women are over diagnosed.
By that term, experts mean women treated for cancers that grow too slowly to ever put their lives at risk. This is different from another screening problem: false alarms ( also known as false positives), which occur when suspicious mammograms lead to biopsies and follow-up tests to rule out cancers that were not present. The study did not look at the false alarm rate.

"It's clear that screening saves lives," said Harpal Kumar, chief executive of Cancer Research U.K. "But some cancers will be treated that would never have caused any harm and unfortunately, we can't yet tell which cancers are harmful and which are not."
Each year, more than 300,000 women aged 50 to 52 are offered a mammogram through the British program. During the next 20 years of screening every three years, 1 percent of them will get unnecessary treatment such as chemotherapy, surgery or radiation for a breast cancer that wouldn't ever be dangerous. The review was published online Tuesday in the Lancet journal.


I read another study indicating that physical exams by doctors caught and missed virtually the same number of women with breast cancer.  The medical exam missed breast cancer 13% of the time and the mammograms missed it 14% of the time...interesting, isn't it?  There's also another study out which indicates a significant increase in the amount of breast cancer cases among young women.  That is very troublesome as the prognosis for younger women is far more dire than for those with breast cancer among women over 50.  Also, the type of breast cancer in younger women is far more virulent than for older women.  I believe it is important to explain that to women so that we can target the need for potentially debilitating treatments to those who will benefit the most, as opposed to prescribing a "one size fits all," type of therapy.