ALERT: Cancer Screening Falls Flat Again; JAMA Meta-Analysis Reveals Failures

A new study flies in the face of popular misconceptions around the purported "life saving" benefits of a number of cancer screening programs, reminding us that real prevention will depend on what you eat, how we move our bodies, and related lifestyle-modifiable factors -- something the medical establishment underplays to the detriment of countless citizens around the world. 

Cancer screening has been promoted for half a century as the primary means of cancer prevention to millions around the world, yet a newly published meta-analysis in the JAMA Internal Medicine titled, “Estimated Lifetime Gained With Cancer Screening Tests: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Clinical Trials,” reveals that “current evidence does not substantiate the claim that common cancer screening tests save lives by extending lifetime, except possibly for colorectal cancer screening with sigmoidoscopy.”

The objective of the study was to ascertain “lifetime gained with cancer screening,” looking at the following 6 commonly used cancer screening tests, and comparing screening with no screening outcomes after 9 years of follow up reporting on all-cause mortality: 

• Mammography screening for breast cancer

• colonoscopy, sigmoidoscopy, or fecal occult blood testing (FOBT) for colorectal cancer

• computed tomography screening for lung cancer in smokers and former smokers

• prostate-specific antigen testing for prostate cancer.

The meta-analysis pooled results from 18 randomized clinical trials representing 2,111,958 individuals, with median follow-up of 10 years for computed tomography, prostate-specific antigen testing, and colonoscopy; 13 years for mammography; and 15 years for sigmoidoscopy and FOBT. 

“While fecal testing and mammography screening did not prolong life … an extension of 37 days was noted for prostate cancer screening with prostate-specific antigen testing and 107 days with lung cancer screening using computed tomography, but estimates are uncertain,” the study authors summarized.

The study concluded,

“The findings of this meta-analysis suggest that current evidence does not substantiate the claim that common cancer screening tests save lives by extending lifetime, except possibly for colorectal cancer screening with sigmoidoscopy”

Commentary

This latest high-powered study reiterates a recent finding which we reported on here: ALERT: Mammograms Leading to Widespread Overdiagnosis -- Unnecessary Treatment -- In Older Women, NCI Study Reveals, namely, mammograms simply do not live up their heavily marketed promises. To the contrary, the harms of overdiagnosis and subsequent overtreatment of 'cancers' are exacting an immense toll on the health and well-being of those who subject themselves to these screenings which they wrongly believe are the only viable way to “prevent cancer.”

More worrisome, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) released new draft recommendations in May suggesting that women as young as 40 should start getting them regularly. You can view all our x-ray mammography research and reporting here.

Thermography, for instance, offers a far safer method, is capable of shedding light on underlying metabolic issues, and can be used long before breast tissue even expresses abnormalities detectable through x-ray mammography -- which always causes harm due to their use of carcinogenic radiation. Thyroid cancer diagnoses are another egregious example of this: 'Oops... It Wasn't Cancer After All,' Admits The National Cancer Institute/JAMA. Prostate screening -- specifically PSA testing -- has left hundreds of thousands injured, and possible far worse off than if they had never undergone conventional screening and treatment. Learn more here: The Failed Medical Experiment: PSA Screening for Prostate Cancer. There are too many examples of the harms of cancer screening and subsequent overtreatment to go into at length in this article.

While it is always our position that it should be the patient who should decide whether or not to undergo a screening or surgical procedure, as medical choice is sacrosanct, that decision should be informed by unrestricted access to information which demonstrates clearly the benefits and risks.

Unfortunately, the medical-industrial-establishment rarely appears to provide such access, and especially since natural or integrative approaches are still often falsely labeled as “pseudo-scientific,” or otherwise “unsupported,” when available evidence to the contrary continues to accumulate. For example, look at the evidence for the consumption of flaxseed as an evidence-based intervention for the prevention of breast cancer, as well as breast cancer recurrence: Eating Flaxseed May Reduce Breast Cancer Mortality By Up To 70%. 

This is the tip of an immense iceberg of natural approaches, many of which are food-based and therefore exceedingly safe and time-tested, and which you can dive deeper into by visting our most extensive database on Greenmedinfo.com: Cancers: All, and which consists of over 12,000 studies relevant to hundreds of different cancer. You can also read my book REGENERATE, which includes a chapter that dives deep into the topic of cancer. Lastly, my masterclass Regenerate Yourself covers the topic, as well, and is available as an evergreen product for anyone wishing to take full control of their health destiny. 

At Greenmedinfo.com, we continue to provide the world free access to peer-reviewed and published research that will not receive mainstream media reporting due to the fact that their primary funders are the pharmaceutical and medical industry. Nor will you find our research indexed on Google, which is itself an extension of both the pharmaceutical industry and the World Health Organization’s policies around a one-size-fits-all pharmaceutical and surgical model for disease prevention and treatment.

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