Mammograms: The breast defense?

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By Dr William Campbell Douglass, MD

If you've been reading the Daily Dose or my newsletter for any length of time at all, you already know how I feel about mammograms. They don't save lives, and they're hazardous to a woman's health on many levels. And since I haven't talked about this for a while, it all bears repeating. To recap what I've said before...

First, the idea that "early detection" of breast cancer will spare a woman's breast (or breasts) is erroneous. Despite the mainstream's droning on about the need for regular mammograms as an aid to the detection of cancerous tumors, the notion that such advanced warning will lead to a cure for the disease is SIMPLY FALSE. Yet survey data indicates that a huge percentage of at-risk women believe just that. This is really tragic, since the only tumors mammograms can reliably detect are those that indicate a relatively advanced stage of metastasized cancer.

Second, the act of getting a mammogram itself may actually CAUSE the spread of diseased cells and the development of cancerous tumors within an otherwise healthy breast. In what I call the "compression syndrome," the act of squeezing and compressing the breast in order to get good images during mammography may activate and spread an otherwise contained or localized mass of cancerous cells. In one 90,000-woman Canadian study (published in a 1992 issue of The Lancet, my favorite medical journal), subjects between 40 and 50 who had yearly mammograms showed a 36%-52% INCREASE in breast cancer mortality. But have we heard about this in USA Today, or on NBC news?

Third, conventional medicine is COMPLETELY IGNORING a perfectly safe, non-invasive alternative cancer test called the AMAS (Anti-Malignan Antibody Screen). AMAS is a simple and amazingly accurate (95%+) blood test for detecting cancer cells of any type originating anywhere in the body. And false positives for the AMAS test are less than 1%, which compares very favorably to the...

MORE THAN 73% FALSE POSITIVE RATE OF MAMMOGRAMS AND PHYSICAL EXAMINATIONS!

That's right: According to the Breast Cancer Detection Demonstration Project, a 5-year study of more than a quarter-million women between 35 and 74, only ONE IN SIX biopsies performed on the basis of a positive mammogram (or physical exam) revealed cancer. Yet millions of women rush into lumpectomies and mastectomies based on these results. If the mainstream would just follow these tests with the AMAS, they'd be saving a lot of women the physical and psychological damage that goes hand-in-hand with these procedures. Keep reading...

But chances are they won't even mention the AMAS.

Why? Because there's simply too much money to be made as a result of the irrational fear mammograms (and physical exams, for that matter) spread. Lots of lumpectomies and mastectomies equals lots of cash in doctors' and hospitals' pockets.

The bottom line is this: Today, conventional mammograms most often lead to risky, extreme, and expensive TREATMENTS for breast cancer - but not necessarily to cures or even an increased lifespan. And in a scary number of cases, those treatments (see also: surgery) are completely unnecessary.

If you're concerned about it, or have been on the receiving end of a "positive" mammogram, ask your doctor to follow up with an AMAS test before you decide on any options, surgical or otherwise. If he (or she) isn't familiar with this test or won't perform it, find a doctor who will before you submit to the scalpel.

And keep in mind, too, that not all cases of breast cancer cases require surgery or treatment of any kind. About one in four modern breast cancer diagnoses fall into the category of slow-to-develop ductal or lobular carcinomas "in situ" - which only become malignant in about 2% of cases. Yet women are often mislead and panicked into an unnecessary mastectomy in these cases that can simply be closely monitored over time. Would you part with your breast (or a potion of one) for a 2-in-100 long shot? Probably not. But that won't stop doctors and hospitals from urging you to go under the knife...

After all, they've got bills to pay.

Giving you the full story,

William Campbell Douglass II, MD

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