Aunt Minnie (1/26, Yee) reports that research indicates “presenting information to men and women about...’harms’ of prostate and breast cancer screening significantly diminishes their interest in screening exams.” The research, published in the Annals of Family Medicine, “presents the results of an evaluation of interventions developed to help patients ‘consider and trust’ the 2009 U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommendations on breast screening for women in their 40s, as well as the 2012 recommendations against prostate cancer screening, according to the authors.” Aunt Minnie adds, “The problem with research like the current study is that it’s risky to use the USPSTF’s guidance as a gold standard for screening protocols, according to Dr. Debra Monticciolo, chair of the American College of Radiology’s (ACR) breast imaging commission.” Dr. Monticciolo told AuntMinnie.com, “Regarding mammography screening, the task force has not had any breast imaging experts on its panel.” She added, “And if task force information is being presented as all the evidence, that’s scary.” 

Aunt Minnie (1/24) reports that investigators “have found a new factor for breast density: chronic, low-level inflammation.” Investigators “induced a low level of chronic inflammation in mice and found that a particular protein called CCL2 caused inflammation, which then led to an increase in breast tissue density and an increased risk of breast cancer.” The findings were published online in Breast Cancer Research. DOT Med News (1/24, Dubinsky) also covers the story. 

The AP (1/24, Tanner) reports that research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association indicates that “Americans in certain struggling parts of the” US “are dying from cancer at rising rates, even as the cancer death rate nationwide continues to” decline.

TIME (1/24, Park) reports that in a study published in Cancer, investigators found that “42% of women who were treated for breast cancer reported severe side effects.” 

The Radiology Business Journal (1/23, Maglaya) reports that “Chris Hobson, senior communications manager of Imaging 3.0 from the” ACR, went to England to “learn how radiology is conducted in the United Kingdom, to compare such practices to those in the” US. Hobson’s “findings in coordinated care, financial pressures, value-based care and more” were published in an article in the Journal of the American College of Radiology. The Radiology Business Journal also provides a Q&A with Geraldine McGinty, MD, vice chair of the ACR Board of Chancellors, in which she discusses “what the ACR and radiologists across the” US “can learn by looking at practices from across the Atlantic Ocean.”