Clipping of news on Brazilian Culture, Law and Citizenship
12/03/2012
This article was translated by an automatic translation system, and was therefore not reviewed by people.
Article published in the journal 'Nature' repeated claims that examination leads to diagnosis of tumors that do not progress to cancer
BY Fernando Barbosa
São Paulo - The lack of diagnostic time has proved the worst frame of risk for breast cancer, the most common among women. To prevent the usual display is an annual mammogram (or every two years) after 40 years.
But magazine article 'Nature' challenges the efficiency of the examination, commenting study in the New England Journal of Medicine stating that the routine use of mammography leads to diagnosis of tumors that never progressed to cancer, the proportion of 31% of cases.
The study, which analyzed examinations of women aged over 40 years in the U.S., 1976 and 2008, also indicates that early detection does not reduce long-term mortality. The results have created controversy.
Dr Maria do Socorro Maciel, Cancer Hospital AC Camargo, São Paulo, ensures that mammography has impact on survival of patients. "Statistics can be twisted in favor of each argument. The benefits of screening are evident. "
The 'harm overdiagnosis', as it was called in the study, women would have taken without the treatment with surgery, radiation, hormone therapy, chemotherapy.
"This is nothing new," says Ruben Chojniak, director of the Center for Diagnostic Imaging of the AC Camargo.
He defends the exam as secondary prevention of cancer. The primary is early diagnosis. "The benefit (mammography) is greater."
Americans started the controversy
The controversy began in 2009 when the Preventive Services Task Force U.S. withdrew its recommendations for mammograms in women 40 to 49 years, arguing that studies have not indicated significant reduction in deaths.
Have a medical Vera Lucia Nunes Aguilar, coordinator of Women's Imaging Service Syrian Lebanese Hospital, ensures that the examination brings benefit to this age. In Brazil, Law 11,664 of 2008, states that every woman has the right to mammography from age 40, the Unified Health System (SUS).
Source: The Day
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This article was translated by an automatic translation system, and was therefore not reviewed by people.