October test (thread) @VPrasadMDMPH @adamcifu @EricTopol @HealthWatchUK
1) Let’s suppose that you screen for cancer people aged 50 to 75 years every 2 years and remove all the cancers you detect for 25 years.
After 25 years of this, in people over 75 years, will you find:
2) Answer: fewer prostate cancers; but more breast cancers.
In 75+ year olds:
3) Why are there more cancers in old women after mammography screening?
4)
3a. Radiation causes cancer.
You are right. The phenomenon is seen in registries from every country where it is studied:
biorxiv.org/content/10.110…
researchgate.net/project/A-mamm…
5)
3b. Can’t be X-rays because the dose of radiation for a mammo is the same amount a woman would get from her natural surroundings over 7 weeks, right?
- Sure. Swallowing all your pills at once is the same as taking them in 7 weeks.
6)
3c. Don’t know but in case of doubt, I prefer to take the risk of causing cancers (precaution principle). Correlation is not causation. Could be that X-rays are caused by cancer.
7) Who is to blame for mammography-induced cancers?
a) The screening program organizers
b) The scientist who discovered mammography causes cancer
8) Who has been punished for it?
a) The screening program organizers
b) The scientist who discovered mammography causes cancer
9)
a) The organizers: wrong answer.
b) The scientist : right. I have been fired from the INSERM.
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