Tag Archives: annual mammogram

Mammography’s Shadows, VII: Legacies

Good science gives the same answer to questions posed by both male and female investigators.  But good science normally only answers questions as they are posed.  In the case of breast cancer, ordinarily only females experience the disease, with its attendant costs to themselves—and opportunities for others.  The same is true for current breast cancer […]

June 29, 2015 – 3:00 pm | By Sylvia Kraemer | Posted in Healthcare, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Mammography’s Shadows, VI: The National Cancer Institute Weighs In

Like all federal agencies the National Cancer Institute is subject to indirect political pressure through congressional and executive branch control of agency budgets.  Such pressure can and does influence programmatic decisions. That had been the case with the Breast Cancer Demonstration Project of the 1970s (see this blog’s post for May 25, 2015, “Mammography’s Shadows: […]

June 18, 2015 – 3:37 pm | By Sylvia Kraemer | Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

Mammography’s Shadows, V: The Doctrine Unravels

The American Cancer Society continues to advise “women age 40 and older” to have a mammogram “every year and should continue to do so for as long as they are in good health.” Most privately operated medical institutions in the United States, reliant as they are on revenue streams from diagnostic and treatment procedures, echo […]

June 17, 2015 – 4:49 pm | By Sylvia Kraemer | Posted in Healthcare | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Mammography’s Shadows, IV: Hunting Cancer with X-Rays

All of us come into the world designed by evolution to survive.  Failing some rare mishap, we arrive equipped with immune systems ready to do battle with unfriendly biologic mischief makers.  The wizards within us that enable this microscopic life-preserving enterprise reside in the nuclei of our 75-100 trillion cells. Just as millions of  ‘0s’ […]

June 9, 2015 – 4:06 pm | By Sylvia Kraemer | Posted in Healthcare, Science and Policy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Mammography’s Shadows, III: The Campaign

Scientists at the National Cancer Institute recognized the limitations of the mammography screening trial conducted during 1963-1969 by the Health Insurance Plan of Greater New York (HIP-GNY).  Those limits prevented the trial from supporting a widespread screening protocol for breast cancer among asymptomatic women of average risk. (See previous post, “Mammography’s Shadows, II:  Numbers and […]

May 26, 2015 – 4:57 pm | By Sylvia Kraemer | Posted in Healthcare, Science and Policy | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Mammography’s Shadows, II: Numbers and the First Large X-ray Screening Trial

Quantities, measured and analyzed with numbers and statistics, are the foundation of our ability to communicate the attributes of much of the physical world.   Mathematical formulas and calculus enable us to predict what will happen when we manipulate matter in motion.  Notations measuring differing lengths of vibrating strings can create the exquisite harmonies of the […]

May 15, 2015 – 5:38 pm | By Sylvia Kraemer | Posted in Healthcare | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (0)