When it comes to breast cancer, the earlier it's caught, the more effective the treatment…or so we all thought. But now, a new study from Annals of Internal Medicine has concluded that there are cases when breast cancer is diagnosed too early.
According to the study, between 15 and 25 percent of breast cancers discovered after mammograms actually wouldn't have caused a woman any problems. This is called "overdiagnosis," which occurs when doctors choose to treat a tumor that is technically cancer but will not grow or kill.
"It is a tumor that can be cured with treatment but does not need to be treated and/or cured," Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer of the American Cancer society, explained to CNN.
The study uses data collected from a screening program in Norway, which took place over the course of a decade. Researchers analyzed around 40,000 breast cancer cases in total, and found that between 1,169 and 1,948 of those women were overdiagnosed and received unnecessary treatments.
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But though undergoing unneeded cancer treatment is dangerous, waiting for a later diagnosis is just as unsafe. So what is a woman to do? I think the first crucial step for every female is realizing that mammograms can pick up both fatal and non-fatal cancers and that the diagnosis process can potentially lead to unneccesary treatment.
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That being said, I also believe that should a woman be unfortunate enough to discover a tumor, then there's no reason to hold off on treatment– even if it does end up being a case of overdiagnosis. Waiting to see what happens is life threatening when it comes to cancer. So why wait? With treatment, you'll be cured regardless of the type of tumor and you won't have to spend countless worrying or wondering, "What if?" And though it might be scary, until there's another way to determine exactly what kind of cancerous tumor you're dealing with, undergoing treatment is a necessary precaution for you and your family. Better to be safe than sorry!
What do you think of the study? Would you get treatment if you weren't sure if it was necessary?
Image via Alex E. Proimos/flickr
