Social media posts that have circulated for months falsely claim not only that Switzerland has banned breast cancer screenings, but that the procedures increase the risk of developing the disease.
Confusion is spreading online thanks to bizarre rumours about a supposed ban on mammograms in Switzerland.
Social media users have been claiming for months that the country decided to outlaw the procedure due to concerns over its safety, one of the most frequent claims being that mammograms cause breast cancer because of the patient’s exposure to radiation during the screening process.
In addition, many of the social media posts insist that 50% to 60% of mammogram results give false positives, leading to unnecessary anxiety and treatment.
These claims are all false.
EuroVerify reached out to the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health, which confirmed that there is no ban on mammograms in Switzerland.
“Screening programs are set up by the cantons,” a spokesperson for the office said in an emailed statement. “Mammograms are recommended from the age of 50 onward.”
Other fact-checkers from other news organisations also debunked the claims when they emerged on social media in previous months.
What about the claims that mammography is unsafe?
One of the main misleading claims on social media is that the radiation present in mammography significantly increases the risk of cancer in women.
However, according to experts that EuroVerify spoke to, this isn’t the case.
Dr Evandro de Azambuja, head of the Medical Support Team at the Jules Bordet Institute in Anderlecht, explained that mammograms do not in fact involve much radiation.
“If they follow the strict protocols that are recommended by […] agencies, the dose is low,” he said. “So there is no risk that you’re going to develop cancer because of the irradiation of the mammography.”
While some studies show that very frequent testing may slightly increase the risk of cancer, routine screening should not pose a problem.
To put things into perspective, Julia Schwarz, a specialist in early detection from the Swiss Cancer League in Bern, said that there are some instances “where you see a flight attendant has more radiation during one year of work than you get with a mammogram”.
Do screenings return a high rate of false positives?
Another claim circulating online is that up to 60% of mammogram results are false positives, leading to unnecessary tests and treatments. This statistic is also misleading.
According to Dr Partha Basu, head of the Early Detection, Prevention and Infections Branch at the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, while false positives are part of the screening process, getting one once is not the same as a final diagnosis.
“We have to understand the difference between a screening test and a diagnostic test. A diagnostic test is like taking a biopsy where we expect a very high level of accuracy,” he said.
“A screening test is just to identify who has a high risk of having a disease, who has a low risk of having a disease,” he added. “That is why it is always recommended that those women that have a positive result on mammography should be investigated as early as possible.”
Women should be told however about the potential risk of getting a false positive before undergoing mammography, according to Schwarz.
“They need to know there is a chance,” she said. “It’s not a big chance, but it can happen […] The good thing about early detection is that the rate of cure is great.”
Why are mammograms important?
Indeed, it’s this early detection which makes mammograms so effective, according to the experts that EuroVerify spoke to.
Contra the false claims, mammograms are still one of the best ways to detect breast cancer early, according to Basu, who noted that even small medical interventions technically carry a minute risk.
“Even if I take a paracetamol tablet, there is a risk of some complications,” he said. “So we always look at the risk versus benefit. The benefit of mammography is huge: it reduces the mortality from breast cancer by 40%.”
Azambuja echoed these thoughts, noting that mammography reduces the mortality rate in general because “the earlier you detect the cancer, the better the prognosis is for the patient”.
They also recommended self-examination as a great way to detect breast cancer early, even though it’s not as reliable as a professional breast cancer screening.
“Mammography and breast self-examination are complementary to each other to make sure that the women get an early diagnosis of breast cancer,” Basu said.
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