Floridians are invited to a free webinar about the risks and benefits of screening mammography for breast cancer.
Most women today are aware that yearly screening mammograms are recommended for healthy women over age 40 to detect breast cancer.
But not everyone appreciates that this test misses 20 to 25 percent of all tumors or that new studies show that despite substantial increases in the number of cases of early-stage breast cancer detected, screening mammography has only marginally reduced the rate at which women present with advanced cancer.
Breast Cancer Action (BCAction), a national grassroots education and advocacy group working to end the breast cancer epidemic, is sponsoring an online program to help women understand the potential for overdiagnosis and overtreatment with mammography so that they can make their own decision about timing and frequency of screening.
Titled: "Oversimplification of Early Detection: Screening Mammography and Breast Cancer Overdiagnosis", the webinar will be aired on Tuesday March 12th and Thursday March 14th.
Hosted by H. Gilbert Welch, MD, Professor of Medicine at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Research and co-author of the study “Effect of Three Decades of Screening Mammography on Breast Cancer Incidence” and Tracy Weitz, BCAction Board Chair and Director, Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH), University of California, San Francisco, the webinar will:
- Deconstruct the “early detection saves lives” mantra
- Analyze the benefits and harms of mammography
- Explain the effect three decades of screening mammography has had on breast cancer incidence
- Help to translate the science around overdiagnosis and overtreatment related to mammography
- Discuss what all this information means for you
To attend the free online event, register here
- Tuesday, March 12th 1PM (PST)/ 4 PM (EST)
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