Pricey screenings make no difference in treatment
Breast cancer survivors are routinely held up for thousand- dollar MRI exams... but a new study shows they don't make a dime's bit of difference.
Of course, if you've been listening to me, you already know that.
The new study looked at women who'd been conned already by the breast cancer scam – patients who were treated once (almost certainly unnecessarily) and facing the possibility of going under the knife again.
Nothing like a repeat customer, right?
British researchers followed 1,623 breast cancer patients at 45 clinics who were put through the ringer of the standard “triple assessment”. That’s the unholy trinity of an exam, an X-ray or ultrasound, and a lab test used to trick more women into unnecessary cancer treatments.
Roughly half of these women got MRIs as well... while the other half didn’t.
In the end, 19 percent of the women in both groups were told they’d need another operation within six months of their first surgery. That’s 19 percent – whether they had that big-money MRI or not, according to the study published in Lancet.
And a year later, there was no difference in the quality of life of either group. I’m sure a few MRI owners had a boost in their quality of life, though – with breast scans that can cost up to $1,500 a pop, the machines are like giant ATMs.
Yet the American Cancer Society is STILL pushing these pricey exams on supposedly high-risk women... with no real evidence that they add anything to the already-questionable breast cancer diagnosis.
Other studies have found that women who get expensive breast MRIs are more likely to undergo aggressive treatments, yet neither live longer nor have a lower rate of recurrence.
But since most breast cancer survivors don’t realize the only thing they really survived was a battle with a greedy doctor, they’re more than happy to line up outside these machines like pizzas waiting to go into an oven.
In fact, most of these women never needed surgery in the first place – and more than a few had cancers CAUSED by all their routine mammogram screenings and X-rays.
MRIs: Bad medicine for breast cancer
I've been speaking out for years on the wrong-headed mantra of early diagnosis for cancer.
Some so-called experts want you to believe it saves lives. But I've seen it ruin more lives than I care to think about. Finally, the science is starting to back me up on this one.
Researchers say that the latest data shows that MRI exams, which are known for catching breast cancer and other tumors especially early, are more likely to lead to aggressive treatment for breast cancer.
But here's the catch: women who get these expensive high-tech exams don't live longer than women who don't. Plus, they don't have a lower rate of recurrence, according to commentary published in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.
If that's the case, why get them in the first place?
That's the question I've been asking for years.
As scary as this might sound, many people live with cancer, never knowing it's there. In fact, by the time you reach a certain age, odds are pretty good you have a tumor somewhere in your body. But the odds are just as good that it'll never give you any trouble, and you'll eventually die of something else entirely.
But regardless of how life-threatening the tumor is, you want the cancer out. Now. And doctors are only too happy to comply. That's when it begins: the traumatic cycle of tests, treatments, surgical procedures, radiation, drugs and therapies – all of which are potentially more dangerous than the cancer ever would have been.
While there are aggressive cancers that need to be dealt with quickly and completely, most of the ones that show up in early tests are slow-growing cancers with excellent long-term survival rates.
In the meantime, don't join the cancer panic, and don't get screened just for the sake of being screened. Only bother with it if you have a reason, like a family history of cancer or some other risk factor.
Otherwise, skip all those early screenings.
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