subject: Girls Must Pay Attention To Breast Cancer [print this page] Over the past century medicine has worked so many miracles progress has come to seem unstoppable. A discovery is made, a cure is But the truth is that medical science, like all science, does not proceed ignorance to enlightenment in a straight line. Indeed, it is more ace described, in the words of the philosopher Miguel de Unamuno, cemetery of dead ideas", with one seeming truth being thrown out for another that fits better with the latest research. For years, women over 40 years old were told that a yearly mammogram could find breast cancer early enough to save them from death. This was medical doctrine; it was the truth. But in the early 1990's, doubts grew about whether the test helped women in their 40's, and now some experts say they question whether it saves anyone. Thomas Sabo Necklaces
"People don't like to hear this stuff," said Dr. Leslie Kauffman, an oncologist at Hematology Oncology Consultants of Columbus, Ohio. "People cling to mamrnograms. They cling to the idea that there is something they can do to protect themselves. If we take away that as a security blanket, people turn to you and say, 'So what am I supposed to do?'" The mammogram story shows both the uncertainty of scientific progress and the slipperiness of scientific truth.
"There is a great ignorance of the scientific process," said Dr. Leon Geordies, a public health expert at Johns Hopkins University. All too often, science progresses in fits and starts, reexamining data, reinterpreting evidence - a path that can be hard to accept in medicine, when answers are needed now. The mammography argument, scientists say, is taking place because the test's benefit was never that great in statistical terms. While the test can find lumps too small to feel, does finding and treating them that early save lives? Thomas Sabo Rings
Some of the strongest evidence is from a study begun in the 1960's. It found that after 18 years, 153 out of 30,131 women who had mamrnograms bad died of breast cancer, and 196 out of 30,565 women who did not have the test died of breast cancer. That is a 30 percent difference in breast cancer death rates - but it lies on the medical histories of just 43 women. Questions about the design and conduct of this study have led some to doubt its xaiclusion.
by: allanleelovemonica
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