In a new paper published in the British Medical Journal, Geisel School of Medicine and Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice professors Steven Woloshin and Lisa Schwartz criticize the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation for running advertisements that promote mammograms without addressing the risks involved in the screening, reports CNN.
“To make an informed decision, you not only have to know the benefits, you have to know the harm. And the ad does not say anything about harm, it just gives you this exaggerated benefit statistic,” Woloshin told CNN.
“It doesn’t mean that screening is not good, it means it does good and it does harm. Some people can benefit and some will get hurt, and the harm is just as real as the benefit,“ he continued.
The potential harm, Woloshin says, includes overdiagnosis and misdiagnosis.
Read the full story, published 8/3/12 by CNN.
