When Screening Is Bad for a Woman’s Health

Los Angeles Times - An opinion piece by H. Glibert Welch, professor of medicine, community and family medicine, and of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice at Geisel, on the limited benefits of screening for breast cancer, and how doctors should be doing fewer screening mammograms, not more. "Women are being diagnosed with breast cancer, and receiving some combination of surgery, chemotherapy and/or radiation, when, in fact, that cancer was not destined to cause symptoms — a lump you can feel — or be life-threatening," says Welch. "Screening mammography is more likely to cause overdiagnosis than it is to help save lives."