Archive | Screening RSS feed for this section

DCIS, overtreatment and professionalism

There’s an article in the Guardian describing the US treatment of a woman who had DCIS diagnosed at screening, in one breast. She went on to have bilateral mastectomy, with flap reconstruction, an autologous blood transfusion, and a stay in ITU. The author writes ” It is so confusing. What was that all about? Cancer? […]

Continue Reading →

Nuffield Health : adverts and evidence

  This is an advert from this week’s BMJ. I am positively fuming about it. Nuffield Health are responsible for some non evidence based practices via their ‘health assessments‘. These currently consist of annual mammograms for women over 40, annual cervical smears, pelvic (ie vaginal) examination, urine analysis, ‘hydration levels’ and a chest xray ‘if […]

Continue Reading →

Choices for screening and paternalism

Luisa Dillner wrote a statistically correct and informative article about breast screening in the Guardian recently; she has been replied to by Chris Askew, the chief executive of Breakthrough Breast Cancer. He makes a big  mistake. In his first paragraph, he says “Breakthrough Breast Cancer hopes this will not discourage women from attending their breast-screening […]

Continue Reading →

We are in serious trouble over screening

BMJ summer column, here but cut and pasted till the login works below. We are in serious trouble over screening. For all that medicine has cringed at paternalism and “doctor knows best,” has wrung its collective hands, and promised to do better, screening is still the last great preserve of unethical practice. If you are […]

Continue Reading →

New law on irradiating well people: will it stop screening companies profiting?

I don’t know. I hope so. An amendment has been made to the Ionising Radiation (Medical Exposure) (Amendment) Regulations 2011. It comes into force on July 25th. It says that “At the end of regulation 3(a) (application) of the Ionising Radiation (Medical Exposure) Regulations 2000(3) after “medical diagnosis or treatment” insert “, including any exposure […]

Continue Reading →

Is the US waking up to the harms of screening?

Thanks to Joe Stirt for this. This Washington Post article seems to suggest that there is at least a little bit of light emerging in the debate about breast screening. But they don’t go far enough – breast screening causes harm, tangible, real harm, to women who are diagnosed with tumours that would never have […]

Continue Reading →

Here’s a funny thing

I didn’t know that Karol Sikora had set up the the business of screening well people with CT, MRI et al. How interesting, considering the advice from the National Screening Portal. And how interesting, too, that they recommend as one of their ‘partners‘ ‘The Causeway Retreat’ which “offers individual and group addiction & stress therapy […]

Continue Reading →