?Screens find little cancers not deadly ones? is nonsense
The statements in the article submitted are old news - it has been known
for years (decades?) that screening causes ?overdetection? and thus
?overtreatment? of cancers that might be inert enough not to require
medication (?might? because we still can not discern the ones that do from
the ones that do not thus being forced to treat all of them). That is the price
we pay for getting more of the ones that call for aggressive treatment. So, I
am afraid, the phrase ?not getting help on cancers that will? is nonsense on
the border of cretinous - the only reason someone might not get the help in
this instance is because the resources are inadequate, not because of
screening itself as one might conclude from the text, but that should be
resolved by getting more funding, not by saving where You can not discern
on whom You can save and on whom You can not. This article smacks of
ammo for those whose prime interest is health politicking over money, not
medical help.
Also, the phrase ?cancers that won?t kill them and ... cancers that will? imply
two biological cancer groups that had been proven to exist in the prostate
and the thyroid - the aggressive and the non aggressive ones. No such
indication had been found for breast cancer. Thus, if it is true that statistics
has not shown any betterment in life expectancy for prostate cancer (and I
am not sure even if that is true) it is because the help that actually did occur
was in such a relatively small number of cases in respect to a vaster
amount of those for whom it was irrelevant that the result was
mathematically ?drowned? (a statistical effect that can be considered
artefactual). That can not hold true for breast cancer. If the lack of betterment
is true, the reason must be elsewhere - ineffective therapy, change in the
biological character of breast cancer in the population over time (historically
it happened in some other cancers), or some reasons not yet identified.
Methinks, the only sensible way to resolve this will happen when genetical
testing of cancer character (aggressive vs. non aggressive) will come into
clinical use, hopefully in the next 10-15 years.
