New techniques for detecting breast cancer may be leading more women to have their entire breast removed . . .
. . . one possible explanation is that magnetic resonance imaging, which is relatively new, detects more possibly cancerous growths than does mammography. That could be causing patients and doctors to conclude that a lumpectomy, which removes just the part of the breast containing the primary tumor, may not be sufficient.
Don’t want to say I told you so, but:
Every test has the risk of a “false positive,” which is a positive test in the absence of disease. Doctors generally act on every abnormal result, so a simple X-ray finding could lead to further tests, such as an advanced imaging scan or biopsy. When you consider that a CT scan can expose patients to radiation equivalent to several hundred X-rays, and a biopsy might have serious complications such as bleeding or infection,there comes a point where increasing the frequency and degree of diagnostic studies could lead to harm.
More tests lead to more procedures, which doesn’t always help patients.
