Double edged scientific discovery

[TZ]

Study: Breast Cancer May Regress On Own
CBS/AP) A significant portion of invasive breast cancers may regress on their own without treatment, a new study that is bound to provoke controversy suggests.

The study, published Monday in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine, suggested breast cancer screening may be leading to overdiagnosis of cancer, with upwards of 22 percent of cases likely to resolve themselves without treatment.

Once a breast cancer is found, however, it wouldn't currently be considered ethical not to treat. So - if the theory is correct - large numbers of women may be having surgeries, radiation, chemotherapy and other treatments that would never have been needed if their cancers hadn't been detected.

"If we are right, then this is a kind of paradigm shift," said lead author Dr. Per-Henrik Zahl, a senior statistician with the Norwegian Institute of Public Health.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/11/25/health/main4631996.shtml?source=RSSattr=Health_4631996

Obviously, I'm posting this here so we can have a rational discussion without the ITS A CONSPIRACY crowd chiming in (hopefully).
This is interesting but frightening because what if people read about this and decide that they should NOT treat? I would hope doctors would do the rational thing and consider watchful waiting in the case they think MIGHT be candidates for spontaneous disappearance...
I'm also sure its these types of cancers that are "cured" by alternative healers..

[cosmik debris]

1. It's already been posted in Wooville

But have no fear, HamdenRice is there to keep everyone straight.

:eyes:

[mr blur]

2. Well, while they're there they can't be here,

so that's a winner.

[Pierre.Suave]

3. This "discovery" is a reminder

that we do not know everything, and have MUCH to learn still.

[NoodleBoy]

4. sounds like the cancer-lump-detecting machines need to be refined somehow

the women in my family have a history of breast cancer, and I'm just so glad that the ones who've had it identified in them made the rational decision to accept treatment and it's in remission.

if any of them wooed out I'd probably lose it just a little. no one in my family is going to die because someone convinced them crystal water is more effective than real medicine.

[dropkickpa]

5. It can't be said enough

We just don't know enough about how different cancers work. This is WHY research and funding for research is so fucking crucial. And this is also why I want to pull a clocktower whenever any starts harping on the whole "they already found the cure for cancer and they're just hiding it so they can make money" bullshit.

[Pierre.Suave]

6. I agree with your first point

and LOL at your second...

Willful Ignorance is the only way some people make it through life I think...