Health Tip for the Day- Is Breast Cancer Overdiagnosed?

Breast Cancer Overdiagnosis: A New Estimate in NEJM By Nick Mulcahy  Medscape Radiology October 12, 2016 The overdiagnosis of breast cancer via mammography screening is “larger than is generally recognized,” conclude the authors of a new analysis online October 12published  in the New England Journal of Medicine. An overdiagnosis of breast cancer refers to a tumor detected on screening that “never would have led to clinical symptoms,” explain the investigators, led by H. Gilbert Welch, MD, professor of medicine at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice in Lebanon, New Hampshire “I think the main message [of the study] is that screening has both benefits and harms. There is no single ‘right answer’ ― values matter. Screening is a choice, not a public health imperative,” Dr. Welch told Medscape Medical News. Overdiagnosis is considered one of the harms of screening,