This week I’ve read some puzzling words about a digital mammography study published in the Journal of the NCI. The researchers looked at Medicare records – between women almost exclusively more than age 65. They examined breast cancer screening strategies, detection and staging of new instances.
The investigators located no advantage of digital breast imaging, with or with no computer-assisted detection, among older females. No surprise. But like other ostensibly negative analyses of breast cancer screening, it is gaining traction on social media. This is occurring despite the paper’s lack of applicability to screening girls in their forties, fifties and early sixties.
Blue Sky Twitter (Photograph credit: mkhmarketing)
The study’s primary limits are two. First, that it is strictly about screening ladies more than the age of 65. In which digital mammography gives diagnostic value is in improving accuracy of screening younger ladies with dense breasts. Second, two many years of follow-up is not practically sufficient to inform anything at all about the benefits of screening.
Some examples of exactly where this study has gone wrong include Modern Healthcare, where a headline reads: “Digital mammography costlier, displays no detection-rate positive aspects.” Earlier this month, NPR’s ‘Shots’ hit closer to the reality: “Costlier Digital Mammograms May possibly Not Be Greater For Older Females.”
At the Incidental Economist weblog, Aaron Carroll, a pediatrician and wellness policy professional wrote: “We’re paying a lot more for screening mammograms. They are not producing a difference.” On social media, messages fly and get distorted. What prompted this brief post today was, this, on Twitter:
The consider-away message may lead a lot of girls, doctors and journalist to feel that digital mammograms are costly and not well worth it. But the examine @JNCI_Now says nothing at all of the sort.
How A Misleading Headline On Mammography Generates Confusion
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