![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
walkitouthttp://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/21/health/21cancer.html?_r=1&em
Nice coverage from Ms. Kolata. Basically, JAMA article points out the increasingly obvious: breast and prostate cancer screening are resulting in a lot of aggressive treatment for early stage cancers that probably weren't ever going to do anything (which is bad) and simultaneously failing to find in a timely fashion the cancers that are going to kill people (which is worse). And, apparently the American Cancer Society is not just going to ignore this issue. This time. Nope. They're massaging the message, but planning on telling people that maybe, just maybe, the whole screening will save you thing has been overdone.
About fucking time. It really sucks when the people who are supposed to be the experts on an issue are so terrified of how their public is going to respond that they can't provide leadership. This is a tough, distressing issue, but creating a world in which every year more men are rendered impotent and incontinent and more women are having their breasts cut off because they're afraid of something that wasn't ever going to cause any problems for them anyway -- that's just wrong.
Nice coverage from Ms. Kolata. Basically, JAMA article points out the increasingly obvious: breast and prostate cancer screening are resulting in a lot of aggressive treatment for early stage cancers that probably weren't ever going to do anything (which is bad) and simultaneously failing to find in a timely fashion the cancers that are going to kill people (which is worse). And, apparently the American Cancer Society is not just going to ignore this issue. This time. Nope. They're massaging the message, but planning on telling people that maybe, just maybe, the whole screening will save you thing has been overdone.
About fucking time. It really sucks when the people who are supposed to be the experts on an issue are so terrified of how their public is going to respond that they can't provide leadership. This is a tough, distressing issue, but creating a world in which every year more men are rendered impotent and incontinent and more women are having their breasts cut off because they're afraid of something that wasn't ever going to cause any problems for them anyway -- that's just wrong.