A large study published Tuesday adds to the growing body of research concluding that screening mammograms save relatively few lives from breast cancer while discovering many cancers that wouldn’t have caused problems if left alone.
“The more we screen for cancer, the more we find it. But we could have saved some of these women the angst of being told they have cancer,” said Nancy Keating, a researcher at Harvard Medical School and senior author of the study, which examined decades of screening data.
Other recent studies also have found that mammograms often lead to unnecessary treatment, including a British Medical Journal study in February that followed 90,000 Canadian women over 25 years. But to date, that message hasn’t resulted in fewer mammograms or changes in treatment—largely because scientists still can’t tell which breast cancers can be safely left alone.
“The challenge is, we can’t tell which are the aggressive cancers,” said Dr. Keating.
Growing doubts about the benefits of mammograms prompted the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force to change its recommendations in 2009. Since then, it has urged women to get mammograms every other year starting at age 50, rather than annually at 40. The American Cancer Society and other cancer advocacy groups continue to recommend annual screenings starting at 40.
Many health-care policies encourage more screening. Several states now require doctors to tell women if they have dense breasts, which can make mammograms less accurate, and to discuss more high-tech options. A growing number of doctors are rated—and compensated—on the percentage of their patients who are up to date on screenings. And the Affordable Care Act requires insurers to make mammograms free to women without copays or deductibles.
via More Doubts About Mammograms' Value Are Raised in Large Study – WSJ.com.
QUINNSCOMMENTARY 
Makes you wonder who wrote the report. As a guy who is fortunate to have survived two Melanomas (one stage 4), prostate cancer, pre-cancerous Thyroid removal and several Basil Cell Carcinomas all I can say is Thank you for these type surveys that seem to be targeted toward reducing costs. Look into the eyes of a person who – prior to the screen test – seemed to be healthy and happy and watch their reaction when told “you have cancer”. No amount of pleasure is gained by telling patients that 90,000 people really did not need to undergo further testing – you probably will be OK – let’s just wait and see.
You have to be absolutely crazy to think the patient will feel confident with the “wait and see approach”. We might as well drop back to the health care that was available in the stone age or in Pompeii. We are probably paying these “scientists’ too much money to dream up these schemes.
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