Kudos to John Crewdson for exploring in such depth the questionable science behind our society’s reliance on routine screening mammograms (“Questions about cancer study fueling mammography debate,” News, Jan. 27).
Unfortunately, uncertainty about mammography will no doubt persist. An unbiased, randomized, controlled trial to evaluate whether routine mammograms reduce breast cancer mortality will never take place so long as the American medical establishment remains convinced that the technology saves lives, and so long as we remain unwilling to walk away from the huge financial investment this society has made in it.
It’s time to redirect some of the considerable funds we’ve invested in promoting mammography toward finding the causes of breast cancer, so that we can truly prevent the disease from developing in the first place.
