Researchers publishing in the Archives of Internal Medicine claim that benefits of screening women with mammography are an "exaggeration". They base this on the fact the majority of women with screening-detected breast cancer do not have their lives saved by mammography. The researchers developed a model using national survey data that found that  a 50-year old woman with screen-detected cancer has only a 13% chance of not dying from the cancer. For all age groups, the percentage was 25%.

COMMENT: So we shouldn't use mammography to screen women for breast cancer? I disagree. Yes, even if mammography detects breast cancer, most women will still succumb to the cancer, but what about the 25% who won't? If they hadn't undergone mammography, they also would die from the disease...and that's a lot of women. Plus, what about years of survival? The earlier the cancer is detected, the longer the probability of survival. Shouldn't these researchers take that into consideration? If women are going to die from breast cancer, isn't it still better to add years to their life? I think so. Do you?