Dan Kopans, MD, FACR, FSBI was a guest on the Diane Rehm Show on February 13, 2014. He discussed the controversial Canadian study published in the British Medical Journal and the value of mammograms. Listen to the segment here. 

According to the American College of Radiology and Society of Breast Imaging, the recent breast cancer screening article (Miller et al) published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) is an incredibly misleading analysis based on the deeply flawed and widely discredited Canadian National Breast Screening Study (CNBSS). The results of this BMJ study, and others resulting from the CNBSS trial, should not be used to create breast cancer screening policy as this would place a great many women at increased risk of dying unnecessarily from breast cancer.

The article by Cristina O’Donoghue, MD, MPH and accompanying editorial by Joann G. Elmore, MD, MPH released on Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine describe increased costs of mammographic screening due to adherence to ACS screening guidelines. The paper has numerous problems with its methodology and its conclusions are misleading. 

In a letter to the editor of the New York Times, Murray Rebner, president of the Society of Breast Imaging, and Barbara Monsees, chair of the Breast Imaging Commission of the American College of Radiology criticize a recent Times op-ed by H. Gilbert Welch, saying that it “provides the basis for bad advice to women.” Monsees and Rebner write that “every medical organization experienced in breast cancer (including the American Cancer Society, American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, American College of Radiology, Society of Breast Imaging and National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers) recommends annual mammograms for women ages 40 and older.” 

Nov. 12, 2013 - New York Times: Amy Robach, an anchor on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” had avoided her doctor’s recommendation for a mammogram screening for a year, when a producer for the show called at the end of September and asked her to consider undergoing a televised mammogram. On Oct. 1, as all the major television networks promoted the beginning of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Ms. Robach submitted to the screening live on the show. A television camera discreetly showed the procedure. Normally, these morning-show segments end there. But unbeknown to viewers, the mammogram turned up evidence of cancer. On Monday Ms. Robach announced on “Good Morning America” that she would undergo a double mastectomy later this week.