More than 90 percent of patients newly diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer do not seek a second opinion, reports American novelist Jennifer Weiner in a recent op-ed for The New York Times.
I know the stories about women who, like me, had abnormal mammograms, but whose biopsies or M.R.I.s revealed advanced cancers that were successfully treated. Early detection saves lives, I’d always heard, and it seemed like a reasonable mantra.
Except now, some researchers are rethinking this practice. There are organizations saying that the word “carcinoma” shouldn’t be part of lobular carcinoma in situ — and that women should be told they have a growth or a neoplasm, an elevated risk or a precancerous condition instead. (Though pleomorphic L.C.I.S., which I had, is considered more serious.) Some organizations even contend that women under 50 with no family history of the disease shouldn’t be getting mammograms at all.
Get the full story at The New York Times.
