English: A series of six illustrations showing how to do breast self examination (BSE) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
In the news today is something that will matter to ALL women. A report on breast cancer screening and treatment has been issued in The Lancet that says: “women are having dangerous and unnecessary surgical procedures following screening”.
So, I looked a little deeper. The “dangerous” and “unnecessary” procedures are operations to have cancerous lumps removed in the early stages of development. These lumps may not grow any further – but they might. If they did, you’d be in for lump removal, possible breast removal and the delights of chemo-therapy.
So the “choice” they want to give us women is: A. Get the lump removed before it develops further
OR
B. Wait to see if it starts growing and spreading and then deal with it (and the consequences, in my view, could be a lot more dangerous and unpleasant.)
I’ll go for “A” thanks! Who would want to go for “B”? Surely the point of screening is to catch a cancer in good time, before it grows and kills you?
Can you imagine them giving the same “choice” to men with prostate or testicular cancer? I don’t think so!
I’m not a Doctor, I may have misunderstood what I have heard and read today; but it sounds to be like an excuse to save money – at the expense of women with cancerous breast lumps. The fact that the author is called Dr David Cameron makes me suspicious!
I’m sure that no woman would want to have chunks cut out of her breast for no reason, but what’s the alternative? If the lump is cancerous, wouldn’t most of us want to have surgery as a precaution? Even if there is a chance it might not develop further? There’s a chance it could, too!
Otherwise, how anxiety provoking would it be to know your breast has cancer in it and have to keep getting it checked in case it grows? Some of these cancers metastasize FAST.
Interestingly, the cancer charities have all recommended that we go ahead with screening. I think so too.
What are your views?
Related articles
- Breast-cancer screening ‘harming thousands’ (wnd.com)
- Breast cancer screening saves lives – that’s no lie (telegraph.co.uk)
- Breast cancer screening ‘should be axed’ (itv.com)
- ‘Breast cancer screening gave me better chance of surviving’ – BBC News (bbc.co.uk)
Men will pause 