For more than two decades, the power of mammograms to save lives has remained a point of controversy. The debate reignited in February with a study published in the journal BMJ showing that screening mammography failed to reduce breast cancer deaths. The study enrolled nearly 90,000 Canadian women, age 40 to 59, and followed them for 25 years. Although women who got mammograms had more breast cancers detected than those who didn't, this increase in detection did not translate into lives saved. Researchers used statistical analysis to calculate that 22 percent of the invasive cancers found would never show symptoms. Women received unnecessary treatment for cancers that did not threaten their lives. "There are all harms and no benefits," says study author Anthony Miller, a physician and epidemiologist at the University of Toronto.
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