YET THE WOMENFOLK NEVER LISTEN WHEN WE TELL THEM...:

Study Suggests Cancers May Go Away on Their Own (GINA KOLATA, 11/24/08, NY Times)

The study, by Dr. H. Gilbert Welch, a researcher at the VA Outcomes Group in White River Junction, Vt., and Dartmouth Medical School; Dr. Per-Henrik Zahl of the Norwegian Institute of Public Health; and Dr. Jan Maehlen of Ulleval University Hospital in Oslo compared two groups of women, all aged 50 to 64, in two consecutive six-year periods.

One group of 109,784 women was followed from 1992 until 1997. Mammography screening in Norway was initiated in 1996. In 1996 and 1997, all were offered mammograms and nearly every woman accepted.

The second group, of 119,472 women, was followed from 1996 until 2001. All were offered regular mammograms and nearly all accepted.

It might be expected that the two groups would have roughly the same number of breast cancers, either detected at the end or found along the way. Instead, the researchers report, the women who had regular routine screens had 22 percent more cancers. For every 100,000 women who were screened regularly, 1,909 were diagnosed with invasive breast cancer over six years as compared with 1,564 women who did not have regular routine screening.

There are other explanations, but researchers say that they are less likely than the conclusion that the tumors disappeared.

The most likely explanation, Dr. Welch said, is that “there are some women who had cancer at one point and who later don’t have that cancer.”

..."If you ignore it, it will go away."

Posted by Orrin Judd at November 24, 2008 7:44 PM