Comments on: A 10-year old girl with breast cancer, how much media coverage should she receive?

By: Kevin

Kevin — Sat, 30 May 2009 10:02:59 +0000

Thanks. Fixed.

By: supastar

supastar — Sat, 30 May 2009 08:36:37 +0000

@kevinmd
i think you meant “UNnecessary breast biopsies on pre-teen girls”

By: Holly Hedgepeth

Holly Hedgepeth — Fri, 29 May 2009 16:23:36 +0000

I wish the media would be more cautious of what they release due to hysterics the public goes into during these trying times. With that said, if breast cancer runs in the family then the oncologist will suggest at what ages the girls need to start having mammograms and such. Unfortunately, my ex sister-in-law and her sister have had to endure such treatments since they started developing their breasts due to it running in their family. My heart and prayers go out to the 10-year-old girl and her family because it is such a rare event; however, they deserve their privacy during this time of healing.

By: VendorMD

VendorMD — Fri, 29 May 2009 16:16:27 +0000

Screening tests are useful only for common conditions. Rare conditions will have extremely rare yield for screening tests and not useful at all in this scenario. Even something as simple as self breast exam can raise false alarms but probably will be the easiest and cheapest to consider.

By: flounder

flounder — Fri, 29 May 2009 16:15:45 +0000

While the risk from receiving a mammogram is very small, it’s not zero, especially for a child. A quick estimate from xrayrisk.com gives an added 1 in 10,000 incidence of cancer from a 10 year old girl receiving a mammogram. If the incidence of breast cancer in children is really 1 in a million, there’s no way they should be receiving mammograms.