Science Memes

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Breast Cancer (mander.xyz)

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Breast imaging already relys on a high false positive rate. False positives are way better than false negatives in this case.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

That’s just not generally true. Mammograms are usually only recommended to women over 40. That’s because the rates of breast cancer in women under 40 are low enough that testing them would cause more harm than good thanks in part to the problem of false positives.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Nearly 4 out of 5 that progress to biopsy are benign. Nearly 4 times that are called for additional evaluation. The false positives are quite high compared to other imaging. It is designed that way, to decrease the chances of a false negative.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

The false negative rate is also quite high. It will miss about 1 in 5 women with cancer. The reality is mammography is just not all that powerful as a screening tool. That’s why the criteria for who gets screened and how often has been tailored to try and ensure the benefits outweigh the risks. Although it is an ongoing debate in the medical community to determine just exactly what those criteria should be.