Interesting cancer study... looking for feed back.

Hi Mono, I read the article
Hi Mono, I read the article but can't remember too much about it except I think it was a strong argument FOR the oncotype dx testing. This certainly reduces the number of women having to endure chemo and it's se. We are all so different so the move to personalized medicine is good news to me. What did you think of the article?

hugs
jan

mono5 said:

Jan, it boils down to this....
I believe, "Mammography is one of medicine's 'close calls,' ... where different people in the same situation might reasonably make different choices," quoting Welch. "Mammography I believe, hurts more than it helps others. More often than not, when it comes to mammography,the right answers seem to be up in the air and a matter of interpretation."
I'm thinking Thermography may be a better and safer way to go. The revolutionary 15-minute screening uses no radiation, no painful compression and no physical contact. It detects physiologic changes and the development of cancer before tumors form, unlike mammography and MRI’s, which discover tumors only after they already exist, so they say.

Im attending an educational seminar about breast health and medical thermography on friday to find out more about it.Then I'll be in a better position to help my daughter make a decision.
Hugs back, Ron

Ron, please be sure to pass
Ron, please be sure to pass the information that you learn on to us
Tj

I read the article. It
I read the article. It starts out by saying one out of three women are over treated. It goes on to say that some cancers grow so slowly that the patient is more likely to die of something else first. It is also possible for cancer to remain dormant over the years. Doctors have no way of knowing which cancers will turn out to be fatal so they err on the side of caution and treat everybody.

The article talks about 1 out of 3 but at the end it says some studies say it is 1 out of 10. So, I'm not sure how thermography would help because the article doesn't say they were incorrectly diagnosed. They had cancer. It's just being able to tell which cancers are going to grow deadly. I would think the oncotype test and the her2 test would help but I don't think those are the only ones that will turn out to grow. Maybe the grade would help. Part of the grade is the mitotic score which shows how fast the cells are dividing. However, in my original biopsy the mitotic score was a 1 but after surgery when they took the whole tumor out, the mitotic score was a 3. My oncologist said it was just that they could get a bigger area for testing after surgery. Also, I would think that once it gets in the lymph nodes it would show that it was spreading????

So, I don't know what the answer is until someone discovers the difference between the cancers that will spread and those that will stop growing. At this time I would think it is better to err on the side of treatment. I wouldn't want to be the one where they didn't treat and then find out it was out of control.