07-17-2012, 10:13 PM
swampy wrote:
Pam, you'll never convince me that mammograms for women under 50 is not a good thing. I spent 4 Months doing chemo with 12 women week after week. Half of those women were under 30 and three of those 6 were in their 30s with young children. Two of those 3 are now dead from metastasized breast cancer.. All of us did the full Monty, mammogram, needle biopsy, surgical biopsy, bone and body scans. It wasn't easy and it wasn't fun, but it is what you do when you discover a lump or have unexplained pain or swelling in your breast. Only 2 of the 12 had a family history of breast cancer. ALL of us had been doing regular annual mammograms.
Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, is the 3rd largest NCI certified research facility in the USA. It, along with cooperating facilities such as Morsani Center and USF Health are on the cutting edge of all things cancer. Moffitt just announced the ground braking of it's cancer genetic research facility. Technology, such as the Kubtec XPERT 40, is making a world of difference in the OR and has much promise for radiology seeding. My surgeon, Dr .Charles E. Cox used this technology during my surgery. As explained in the article below, it saved time and costs and provided pinpoint accuracy.
http://kubtec.writeappeal.com/wp-content...orsani.pdf
To sum it up.. We have come a hell of a long way in medicine and health care (not just breast health), but I see it coming to an end with more and more government intervention. Especially with panels that don't even have doctors from a given medical discipline make decisions out of their field that affect millions of people.
Swampy, read what you wrote "when you discover a lump or have unexplained pain or swelling in your breast." That is NOT the same as a screening. No one recommended not getting checked out if you have a problem or concern. Screenings do not apply to those people. Screening are for the asymptomatic. Further you wrote "ALL of us had been doing regular annual mammograms." which is exactly why the recommendations were changed. Screening did not do what it was touted to do. Especially for younger women. Screenings failed you and countless others because they have tremendous weaknesses. You're on a bandwagon that has no wagon. All screening was doing was running up costs, lining some pockets, and generating a huge number of unneeded biopsies.
Your panels already exist. They are called insurance companies! The idea that someone in DC is now going to be making your medical decisions is ludicrous and nothing more than fud you soaked up from your party. And btw, pharma and medical equipment companies are also making decisions for you and the impetus for their actions has nothing to do with your health. Pharma moans and groans about costs of developing new meds but only spends 12% on research. And they have no qualms about replacing out of patent meds that were proven and worked with newer patented meds with dicey scientific studies. Heck mammograms replaced thermography. Which was cheap and could be immediately used in your gyn's office to see if inflammation was present. It just wasn't a money maker!