Criticizing cancer screening advocates can be a difficult thing to do.
Gary Schwtizer writes about the case of Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), who is introducing a new bill advocating breast cancer screening to begin earlier than the current suggested age of 40.
Ms. Wasserman Schultz was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 42, and wants “to educate the public, particularly young women and their doctors, about the need for a much earlier approach to breast cancer detection.”
Now, she is to be applauded for being a breast cancer survivor, and no doubt, has gone through a difficult ordeal, including a double mastectomy and removal of her ovaries.
But, as Mr. Schwitzer notes, it is difficult to criticize health advocates like these without sounding heartless. The fact is, there is no definitive data that mammograms improve the mortality rate, and by pushing for breast cancer screening at an earlier age, millions of young women will be exposed to needless breast biopsies and procedures for the false positives that mammograms invariably find.
The concept of false positives simply doesn’t tug on the emotional heartstrings, which is why those who preach evidence-based medicine will have such a hard time convincing the public that less cancer screening is sometimes better medicine.
