Medpedia

This story displays the vast gap between evidence and intuition.

Evidence was represented in this quote: "screening causes 10 times as many women to become cancer patients unnecessarily as it prevents from dying from breast cancer," says lead author Karsten Jorgensen, a researcher at the Nordic Cochrane Centre in Copenhagen.

Intuition takes over in this quote:

But Elizabeth Thompson, vice president of health sciences at Susan G. Komen for the Cure, a breast cancer advocacy group based in Dallas, says she worries that these studies will undermine her group's awareness efforts.

"I don't think you can say that we're overtreating those women. We know that some of these cancers become invasive," she says. "We need to keep hammering away at our basic message, which is, early detection saves lives."

Yet, the next line of the story reveals what appears to be a difference of opinion with the Komen organization:

Dr. Eric Winer, director of the breast oncology center at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and chief scientific advisor for Susan G. Komen for the Cure acknowledges that messages about mammography may need revamping.

"As painful as it is to admit, we have oversold mammography to the American public," he says. "Frankly, I don't know what to do with this. On the one hand, I don't want to push people away from mammography, but I don't want to encourage them to have misconceptions about mammograms either."