Are Breast Cancers Detected by Mammography Different?
April 24, 2000 — Screening mammography detects breast cancers very early, which then have an excellent prognosis. This excellent prognosis may be due not just to early detection, but also to the fact that many of the cancers detected are not aggressive in nature and may therefore not require aggressive therapy, a study in the April 24 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine concludes. “The [purpose] of our study is to alert physicians and perhaps patients that everything that looks like cancer under the microscope may not behave like cancer,” study author Alvan Feinstein, MD, MS, tells WebMD. Feinstein is professor of epidemiology at Yale University School of Medicine. “These [early-stage] cancers certainly do not need radical treatment. We must simply be aware that they exist and may eventually need other types of treatments.” “This paper identifies one of the raging arguments about mammography in general,” says Roy Smith, MD, director of medical oversight for the National Surgica
