Washington (dbTechno) – A new study has found that some types of cancer, including breast cancer in women, may regress on their own without the need for invasive treatment.
Researchers from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health carried out the study by looking at the incidence of breast cancer among two groups of women.
The first group was made up of 119,000 women aged 50 to 64 who took part in three rounds of mammogram screenings from 1996 to 2001.
They were compared to a group of 110,000 women of similar age from 1992 to 1997 who did not go through the screening program as it was not yet in effect.
What they found was that women who received mammograms were 22% more likely to have breast cancer tumors than the women in the group that was not screened as often.
What researchers believe is that the tumors found in the group that received more mammograms would have actually regressed on their own.
If they remained undetected, the body would have most likely taken care of it on its own.
This shows that some mammograms may lead to unnecessary invasive cancer treatment.
The biggest issue is that they do not know how to tell which types of cancer will regress on its own, and which will not.
The study was published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
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