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walkitoutI recognize that I spend a lot of time slamming the pharma-medico-industrial complex. I think they deserve a lot of the slamming and I'm happy to provide.
Exempt from this slamming are family practice docs in general (my brother-in-law J. in particular), midwives, some nurse practitioners, blah, blah, bleeping blah.
And high on the list (along with J.) of Doctors I Wuv (I'm serious about this), is H. Gilbert Welch (author of the excellent _Should I Be Tested for Cancer?_). He's back in the news:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/25/health/25breast.html
Short form: sometimes cancer goes away on its own. Sometimes invasive cancer goes away on its own. Even invasive breast cancer. So in addition to watchful waiting for the obvious case (you found something teeny tiny on a routine screening test or as a side effect of some other imaging and are not otherwise symptomatic), watchful waiting might make sense for more serious cases.
Hey! This isn't medical advice!
But it's really interesting information. We all know spontaneous remission can happen; this is an interesting sidelight into how often spontaneous remission of breast cancer might be happening in large populations of women.
ETA: More coverage at:
http://www.medpagetoday.com/HematologyOncology/BreastCancer/11898
Exempt from this slamming are family practice docs in general (my brother-in-law J. in particular), midwives, some nurse practitioners, blah, blah, bleeping blah.
And high on the list (along with J.) of Doctors I Wuv (I'm serious about this), is H. Gilbert Welch (author of the excellent _Should I Be Tested for Cancer?_). He's back in the news:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/25/health/25breast.html
Short form: sometimes cancer goes away on its own. Sometimes invasive cancer goes away on its own. Even invasive breast cancer. So in addition to watchful waiting for the obvious case (you found something teeny tiny on a routine screening test or as a side effect of some other imaging and are not otherwise symptomatic), watchful waiting might make sense for more serious cases.
Hey! This isn't medical advice!
But it's really interesting information. We all know spontaneous remission can happen; this is an interesting sidelight into how often spontaneous remission of breast cancer might be happening in large populations of women.
ETA: More coverage at:
http://www.medpagetoday.com/HematologyOncology/BreastCancer/11898