Welcome to TBO.com. Skip directly to: our Keyword Search, Section Navigation, Content.

TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

TBO.com - Tampa Bay Online

Welcome to Thinking Out Loud, a blog that contains postings from The Tampa Tribune’s Editorial Board and from various Tribune Community Columnists. Unlike the unsigned editorials that represent the newspaper’s institutional voice, the blog postings offer personal perspectives on the issues, personalities and events of Tampa Bay. We invite you to participate by posting your comments. We’ll do our best to respond.

Contributors:

Joe Guidry

Joe Guidry is the deputy editorial page editor of The Tampa Tribune. He is a Tampa native and a graduate of the University of South Florida. He is married and has an adult son.

Jeff Stidham

Jeff Stidham grew up and lives in Bartow. He has been with the Tribune for nearly 22 years, the last 10 on the editorial board.

William Yelverton

William Yelverton is a Tribune editorial writer who has worked for the paper nearly 22 years. He lives in the Dade City area.

Jim Beamguard

Jim Beamguard is a Tribune editorial writer. He is a native of North Carolina and a graduate of Davidson College. He and his family live in Brandon.

Jackie Papandrew:

Jackie Papandrew is a freelance writer and editor. Her syndicated humor column appears in publications in the United States, Canada and India. She lives in Largo with her husband and children. Visit her website at www.jackiepapandrew.com.

Camille Beredjick

Camille Beredjick is a senior at Chamberlain High School, an avid musician and a scribbler with a quirky sense of humor. In the fall, she will be attending Northwestern University to study journalism, political science and music, and she plans to pursue a career in journalism.

Jim Harnish

Jim Harnish is in his 17th year as Senior Pastor at Hyde Park United Methodist Church in Tampa. He and his wife, Marsha, have two daughters and two grandchildren. He is a graduate of Asbury Theological Seminary and received the honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Bethune-Cookman University. He is the author of six books and numerous articles and studies. He enjoys playing with his grandchildren and cheering for the Florida Gators.

Angela Hunt

Angela Hunt is a novelist living in Pinellas County with her husband and two 220-pound mastiffs.

Sheryl Young

Sheryl Young was a Tampa Tribune Community Columnist in 2005-2006. A freelance writer since 1997, including the Tampa Bay Business Journal, Tampa Style Magazines, St. Pete Times and nationally in Better Nutrition, Today’s Christian Woman and more. She’s received a First Place Amy Foundation national "Roaring Lambs" Writing Award, and has lived in Tampa Bay with her family for over 20 years.

Christie Gold

Christie Gold teaches English and journalism at Freedom High School in Tampa where she advises Revolution, the school newspaper. She has been both the Hillsborough County Teacher of the Year and Florida Journalism Teacher of the Year. She lives on a small farm in Wesley Chapel where she trains as a competitive equestrian.

Natalie D. Preston

Natalie D. Preston is a karaoke singing, only-child pouting, Seminole Tomahawk waving, newlywed bride blushing, 50-state traveling, girlie girl who loves to shop, read, run and jump up and down on her soapbox.

Fernando Figueroa

Fernando Figueroa is a researcher, educator and lives in Riverview.

Gary Beemer

Interests include humor, politics, economics, community and world affairs, finance, people, religion, music, sports, current events, the arts and education.

Nicole Yunger Halpern

Nicole Yunger Halpern is an undergraduate at Dartmouth College, where she studies everything she can get her nerdy little hands on. Desired major: life. No, not necessarily biology. Life.

Kris DiGiovanni

Kris DiGiovanni is a Tribune Community Columnist, Huffington Post contributor, Daily Kos diarist, and teacher, who recently moved from NW Hillsborough to another planet - a small beach community in Pinellas County. She also blogs at www.sandscript.wordpress.com

H. David Braswell Jr.

H. David Braswell Jr. is an Information Systems Professional. He is a native New Yorker and a lifelong NY Giants fan. He attended college in California (Cal State Northridge) and moved to Tampa in 1998.

Sean Marcus

Sean Marcus teaches creative writing, journalism and reading at Chamberlain High School. He has one son and is expecting a daughter in early March. He can be reached at wuizabug@gmail.com

Most Recent Entries

Thinking Out Loud

Monthly Archives

An Inconvenient Truth: Early Breast Cancer Screening

Posted Nov 17, 2009 by Kris DiGiovanni

Updated Nov 17, 2009 at 04:20 PM

It’s hard to tell what the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force actually said about breast cancer self exams and mammograms what with all the near-hysterical shouting on the TV and in the newspapers. Most news outlets are reporting some version of the premise that breast cancer screening for women 40-49 is actually an unnecessary expense and bother. This seems to fly in the face of the “early detection equals a better chance of cure” mantra women have been taught for the past two decades.

I decided to read to the report and do some research to try to figure it out for myself.

So, ok, I’m no medical expert, but it seems to me that what the report says, is that breast cancer is actually pretty rare in younger women, and so there are fewer incidents to catch in the 40-49 year-old age group. The actual data shows that you have to do 556 mammograms on women in that group age to find one with cancer. The other problem with women between the ages of 40 and 49 is that their breast tissue is denser, making mammograms less accurate, and causing more false positives. That means that 46 of the 556 women screened would have to have additional imaging to rule out cancer, and 4 or them would actually have to undergo a biopsy.

Apparently, in the eyes of the USPSTF, this is far too much of a waste of medical time and energy, which might otherwise be better spent… I don’t know…. maybe on developing more effective treatments for male ED? Besides, the report goes on to say, there is actual harm done by all this over-screening. Women can get worried and anxious. Also, these women might be inconvenienced (their word, not mine) by having to endure additional testing.

Holy mackaroly! Are these guys nuts?

According to the American College of Gynecology, two out of every 10,000 women who are between the ages of 40 and 49 today will die of breast cancer within the next ten years. Given the latest population statistics, that translates to 42,492 women. However, if these same women are screened for breast cancer, the number for whom the disease will be fatal drops by 6,800.

Think about it. That is almost 7000 more women who will live to see their kids grow up. 7000 more women who will get the chance to hold their first grandchild. 7000 more women who may live long enough to retire.

But to the USPSTF, this “collateral” damage is more than justified by the expense, worry, and inconvenience the other 22-odd million women who didn’t get breast cancer will have avoided.

I’ve got a suggestion as to what the USPSTF can do with their report. However, this is a family Web site, so I won’t go into detail. Suffice it to say that IMHO, this report is not worth the paper it is printed on. I lost my closest friend to breast cancer on Christmas Day, ten years ago. She was 51.

So don’t tell me women 40-49 don’t need to be screened for breast cancer. Don’t tell me a human life is not worth a few hundred dollars worth of medical testing, or that additional testing is too much of an inconvenience. I’m simply not going to listen to such nonsense – and I pray that doctors and the insurance companies won’t either.