I have an article at Salon that looks into new reports about how early mammograms and biopsies are often turning up breast cancer misdiagnoses -- leaving women schooled in the common wisdom that early detection is important for survival in a mess of conflicting messages about what do if a doctor tells them that that yes, they are sick.
Just as the White House is affirming breast cancer screenings as key preventive care that will soon be accessible without co-pay, here comes news that the earliest screenings and biopsies are often pockmarked with errors. A New York Times report tells of cases like Monica Long, a nurse in northern Michigan, who was diagnosed with breast cancer after an early biopsy. She went through radiation, a partial mastectomy, and no small amount of emotional turmoil — only to learn, a year and a half later, that she probably didn't have cancer at all.
It's devastating. It's deplorable. It's other dramatic adjectives as well — but the most frightening one of all is that it is common.
How does it happen?
Comments