iatrogenic – Page 2 – OncWonk – Dr Bier’s Oncology Research Reviews

Effectiveness of and overdiagnosis from mammography screening in the Netherlands: population based study

February 22, 2026

| Cancer - Breast, Mammography - Mammogram, Screening

Comment: The traditional clinical focus on “detecting cancer early” ignores the underlying reality that “saving a life” in observational data is often a statistical artifact as screening has almost no impact on absolute survival. This 2017 population study from the Netherlands deconstructs a 23-year dataset to reveal a staggering truth: while breast cancer mortality (not […]

Mammography Screening for Breast Cancer – Synthesis

February 21, 2026

| No Comments

| Cancer - Breast, Mammography - Mammogram, Screening, Synthesis

The Wonk Debate – Audio Critique & Clinical Commentary: 🙆‍♀️🩻Synthesized Clinical Bottom Line Updated 02-22-2026 The collective evidence—comprising meta-analyses of cohort studies and long-term randomized controlled trials (RCTs)—indicates that the profound survival benefits often attributed to mammography screening in observational data are largely artifacts of Healthy User Bias. While screening successfully identifies more early-stage disease, […]

Screening for breast cancer with mammography – Cochrane Review

February 20, 2026

| No Comments

| Cancer - Breast, Mammography - Mammogram, Screening

Comment: The traditional clinical focus on “saving lives from breast cancer” ignores the underlying reality that “detecting a tumor earlier” does not equate to “lengthening that patient’s life.” This Cochrane review of 600,000 women published in 2013 deconstructs the evidence to reveal that while biased, suboptimally randomized trials suggest a benefit, the three adequately randomized […]

Effect of screening mammography on the risk of breast cancer deaths and of all-cause deaths: a systematic review with meta-analysis of cohort studies

February 19, 2026

| No Comments

| Cancer - Breast, Mammography - Mammogram, Screening

Comment: The traditional clinical focus on “detecting cancer early” ignores the underlying reality that “saving a life from breast cancer” in a cohort study does not equate to “lengthening that patient’s life” in a randomized trial. This comprehensive meta-analysis highlights a persistent survival paradox: while cohort studies suggest massive benefits, the randomized controlled trials (RCTs)—where […]

Breast Cancer Screening Interval: Effect on Rate of Late-Stage Disease at Diagnosis and Overall Survival

February 19, 2026

| No Comments

| Cancer - Breast, Mammography - Mammogram

Comment: The traditional clinical focus on “detecting cancer early” ignores the historical trajectory of screening evidence, where every rigorous randomized trial has failed to demonstrate a statistically significant improvement in all-cause mortality. While this study reports that longer screening intervals are associated with “substantially worse OS,” we should recognize that this observational signal is notoriously […]

Screening for Breast Cancer – US Preventive Services Task Force Recommendation Statement

February 19, 2026

| No Comments

| Cancer - Breast, Mammography - Mammogram, Screening

Comment: The traditional clinical focus and mantra of “early detection saves lives” ignores the underlying reality that “saving a life from breast cancer” does not equate to “lengthening that patient’s life.” This updated USPSTF recommendation highlights a persistent survival paradox: despite decades of technological advancement, screening mammography has never demonstrated a difference in all-cause mortality. […]

Mammograms and Mortality: How Has the Evidence Evolved?

February 15, 2026

| No Comments

| Cancer - Breast, Mammography - Mammogram, Screening

Comment: The efficacy of mammography debate is a conflict between the allure of the “early detection saves lives” mantra and the reality that these screenings have never demonstrated a statistically significant improvement in all-cause mortality. The traditional clinical focus on universal mammography ignores the underlying reality that the tradeoff between harms and benefits has been […]

Risks of second primary cancers among 584,965 female and male breast cancer survivors in England: a 25-year retrospective cohort study

February 1, 2026

| No Comments

| Cancer - Breast, Cancers, Chemotherapy, Radiation Therapy

Comment: Although conventional treatments for breast cancer has made astounding improvements over the 35 years that I’ve been in the field, we have to acknowledge that along with it comes a long-term price paid by the patient’s systemic health. This study provides a definitive signal on the iatrogenic risks associated with the standard-of-care. The clinical […]

Thyroid hormone enhances estrogen-mediated proliferation and cell cycle regulatory pathways in steroid receptor-positive breast Cancer

December 24, 2025

| No Comments

| Cancer - Breast, Medications - General Pharmaceuticals

Comment: This study provides the critical ‘why’ behind the findings from this same groups earlier study. In that article, we highlighted that exogenous thyroid hormone is associated with significantly shortened survival in SR+ breast cancer patients. Now, this research explains elucidates the underlying mechanism: thyroid hormone essentially ‘hijacks’ the estrogen receptor, driving proliferation and rendering […]

Risk of Subsequent Primary Cancers in Thyroid Cancer Survivors according to the Dose of Levothyroxine: A Nationwide Cohort Study

December 24, 2025

| No Comments

| Cancers, Medications - General Pharmaceuticals

Comment: Yet another study challenging the safety profile of synthetic T4. The data here is sobering: thyroid cancer survivors on high-dose levothyroxine faced significantly higher risks of developing a second unrelated (not recurrence) cancer, particularly in the GI tract. With hazard ratios for pancreatic, liver cancers reaching nearly 2.5 and 2.0 respectively, this is a […]