Routine Mammograms: More Harm Than Good?

35:25

November 28, 2012

Detection lead mammographer, Toborcia Bedgood performs an advanced imaging screening that promotes early detection of breast cancer for Alicia Maldonado, at The Elizabeth Center for Cancer Detection in Los Angeles. (Damian Dovarganes/AP)

A new study in the New England Journal of Medicine says that routine mammograms may cause more harm than good, pushing women to get screened every year has had little to no impact on long-term breast cancer survival rates. The medical community and cancer survivors are in an uproar.

We’ll talk to the paper’s co-author and hear pushback from the American Cancer Society.

Guests:

Dr. Gil Welch, professor of medicine at Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice and co-author of "Mammography Screening For Breast Cancer," recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine
Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer at the American Cancer Society
Judy Norsigian, executive director of Boston Women's Health Book Collective

More:

CommonHealth: The Latest Piece In The Mammogram Puzzle
Study: Effect of Three Decades of Screening Mammography on Breast-Cancer Incidence

This segment aired on November 28, 2012.