Short Communication Open Access

Is X-ray mammography accelerating the epidemic of breast cancer?

Abstract

While a growing body of research now suggests that X-ray mammography is causing more harm than good in the millions of women who subject themselves to breast screenings, annually, without knowledge of their true health risks, the primary focus has been on the harms associated with over-diagnosis and over-treatment and not the radiobiological dangers of the procedure itself. In 2006, a paper published in the British Journal of Radiobiology, revealed the type of radiation used in X-ray-based breast screenings is much more carcinogenic than previously believed. Recent radiobiological studies have provided compelling evidence that the low energy X-rays as used in mammography are approximately four times, but possibly as much as six times, more effective in causing mutational damage than higher energy X-rays. Since current radiation risk estimates are based on the effects of high energy gamma radiation, this implies that the risks of radiation-induced breast cancers for mammography X-rays are underestimated by the same factor. Galina Migalko

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