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This article by a British breast cancer specialist explains the risk/ benefit analysis of cancer screening tests really well. There are real risks to routinely screening healthy people for cancer, not just "a little added anxiety" or increased health care costs.

http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/4272/

Americans need to have an honest conversation about routine cancer screening without overstating the benefits or underestimating the harms.

I hope the new recommendations for mammograms (and pap smears) will make a lot of people look at the evidence, not point to anecdotal stories about individual cancer patients (as sad as those stories are).

posted 3 years, 6 months ago
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I think every healthy person should read the book Should I Be Tested for Cancer?: Maybe Not and Here's Why by H. Gilbert Welch before getting screened for any kind of cancer. He looks at the risks and benefits of routine screening and explains them in a very straightforward way. It's definitely worth reading.

posted 3 years, 6 months ago
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