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Peter C. Gøtzsche
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Mammography Screening: Truth, Lies and Controversy 1st Edition

by Peter Gotzsche (Author)
4.6 out of 5 stars 51
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'This book gives plenty of examples of ad hominem attacks, intimidation, slander, threats of litigation, deception, dishonesty, lies and other violations of good scientific practice. For some years I kept a folder labeled Dishonesty in breast cancer screening on top of my filing cabinet, storing articles and letters to the editor that contained statements I knew were dishonest. Eventually I gave up on the idea of writing a paper about this collection, as the number of examples quickly exceeded what could be contained in a single article.' From the Introduction The most effective way to decrease women's risk of becoming a breast cancer patient is to avoid attending screening. Mammography screening is one of the greatest controversies in healthcare, and the extent to which some scientists have sacrificed sound scientific principles in order to arrive at politically acceptable results in their research is extraordinary. In contrast, neutral observers increasingly find that the benefit has been much oversold and that the harms are much greater than previously believed. This groundbreaking book takes an evidence-based, critical look at the scientific disputes and the information provided to women by governments and cancer charities. It also explains why mammography screening is unlikely to be effective today. All health professionals and members of the public will find these revelations disturbingly illuminating. It will radically transform the way healthcare policy makers view mammography screening in the future. 'If Peter Gotzsche did not exist, there would be a need to invent him ...It may still take time for the limitations and harms of screening to be properly acknowledged and for women to be enabled to make adequately informed decisions. When this happens, it will be almost entirely due to the intellectual rigour and determination of Peter Gotzsche.' From the Foreword by Iona Heath, President, RCGP 'If you care about breast cancer, and we all should, you must read this book. Breast cancer is complex and we cannot afford to rely on the popular media, or on information from marketing campaigns from those who are invested in screening. We need to question and to understand. The story that Peter tells matters very much.' From the Foreword by Fran Visco, President, National Breast Cancer Coalition.
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  1. ISBN-10
    1846195853
  2. ISBN-13
    978-1846195853
  3. Edition
    1st
  4. Publication date
    January 21, 2012
  5. Language
    English
  6. Dimensions
    9.69 x 6.85 x 0.73 inches
  7. Print length
    400 pages
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Peter C Gotzsche Professor of Clinical Research Design and Analysis, Director, The Nordic Cochrane Centre and Chief Physician, Rigshospitalet and the University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Routledge; 1st edition (January 21, 2012)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 400 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1846195853
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1846195853
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.74 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 9.69 x 6.85 x 0.73 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 out of 5 stars 51

About the author

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Peter C. Gøtzsche

Peter C. Gøtzsche

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Peter C. Gøtzsche, DrMedSci, MD, MSc

Professor Peter C Gøtzsche graduated as a Master of Science in biology and chemistry in 1974 and as a physician 1984. He is a specialist in internal medicine; worked with clinical trials and regulatory affairs in the drug industry 1975-1983, and at hospitals in Copenhagen 1984-95. Co-founded the Cochrane Collaboration (the founder is Sir Iain Chalmers), and established the Nordic Cochrane Centre in 1993. Became professor of Clinical Research Design and Analysis in 2010 at the University of Copenhagen and has been a member of the Cochrane Governing Board twice. Co-founded Council for Evidence-based Psychiatry in the UK in 2014 and International Institute for Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal in Sweden in 2016. Founded the Institute for Scientific Freedom in 2019. Currently works as researcher, lecturer, author and independent consultant, e.g. in lawsuits. Visiting professor, University of Newcastle.

Peter’s greatest contribution to public health was when he, in 2010, opened the archives of clinical study reports in the European Medicines Agency after a 3-year long battle that involved a complaint to the European Ombudsman. EMA was solely concerned with protecting the drug industry’s interests while ignoring those of the patients. The Ombudsman ruled there was no commercially confident information in the study reports.

Peter has published more than 75 papers in "the big five" (BMJ, Lancet, JAMA, Annals of Internal Medicine and New England Journal of Medicine) and his scientific works have been cited about 50,000 times (his H-index is 70 according to Web of Science, April 2019, which means that 70 papers have been cited at least 70 times). Peter is author of several books. The most recent ones are:

• Mental health survival kit and withdrawal from psychiatric drugs (2020, will appear in other languages).

• Vaccines: truth, lies and controversy (2020, will appear in at least 7 languages).

• Survival in an overmedicated world: Find the evidence yourself (2019) (will appear in 7 languages).

• Death of a whistleblower and Cochrane’s moral collapse (2019).

• Deadly psychiatry and organised denial (2015) (in 9 languages).

• Deadly medicines and organised crime: How big pharma has corrupted health care (2013) (Winner, British Medical Association’s Annual Book Award, Basis of Medicine in 2014; in 16 languages).

• Mammography screening: truth, lies and controversy (2012) (Winner of the Prescrire Prize 2012).

• Rational diagnosis and treatment: evidence-based clinical decision-making (2007).

Peter has given numerous interviews. One, about organised crime in the drug industry, has been seen about 350,000 times on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dozpAshvtsA. Peter was in The Daily Show in New York on 16 Sept 2014 where he played the role of Deep Throat revealing secrets about big pharma. A documentary film about Peter’s reform work in psychiatry, Diagnosing Psychiatry, appeared in 2017.

Peter has an interest in statistics and research methodology. He has co-authored CONSORT for randomised trials (www.consort-statement.org), STROBE for observational studies (www.strobe-statement.org), PRISMA for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (www.prisma-statement.org), and SPIRIT for trial protocols (www.spirit-statement.org). Peter was an editor in the Cochrane Methodology Review Group 1997-2014.

Peter is Protector for the Hearing Voices Network in Denmark.

Peter’s websites: scientificfreedom.dk and deadlymedicines.dk.

Twitter: @PGtzsche1

Email: pcg@scientificfreedom.dk

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
51 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Donald J. Benjamin
5.0 out of 5 stars Medical politics exposed
Reviewed in the United States on November 16, 2013
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An excellent summary of the chequered history of mammography screening trials. Like many other areas of science, cancer medicine is run by those with a vested interest rather than those with an open scientific mind. Peter Gotzsche is one of the latter so he has suffered for not toeing the consensus line. The irony is that those with a closed mind who defend the shoddy science behind the many flawed randomised controlled trials evaluating mammography screening criticise researchers like Peter Gotzsche for having a closed mind, for being biased and for campaigning against mammography screening.

For those like myself who have watched the politics of cancer over the past 30 years there is nothing surprising in this book. But for those who rely on the media for information about cancer screening, they will find much of the contents unbelievable.

The politics of cancer screening is almost identical to that behind the similar controversies of the cholesterol debate in relation to heart disease and the debate about global warming. Many people ask the simple question: How can 95% of the experts be wrong?

Peter Gotzsche's book explains in fine detail how the majority of so called experts apparently don't understand the basic principles of how to run, and how to interpret the results of a randomised controlled trial.

What is shown in this book probably also applies to all of the other types of cancer screening that have been evaluated using randomised controlled trials: screening for prostate, lung, bowel and ovarian cancers. In none of these areas has there been any clear evidence that earlier surgery made possible by screening has produced any saving of lives. Yet In all of these areas the experts have been promoting cancer screening in their area after misunderstanding the results of these trials.

The only shortcoming I found in this excellent book is the author's failure to grasp the significance of his findings: screening doesn't help people with cancer because cancer is a systemic disease. If tumours are only symptoms of a systemic disease, it is not surprising that surgery doesn't help, or that earlier surgery made possible by screening also doesn't help. It in fact causes more harm than good.

Gilbert Welch's excellent book "Overdiagnosed: making people sick in the pursuit of health" shows how screening and other testing often causes more harm than good by finding symptoms that would not have led to death if left alone.

With these two books we are at last getting some of the nitty gritty behind the findings in the earlier ground-breaking books such as Ivan Illich's "Medical Nemesis (1975), Richard Taylor's "Medicine Out of Control" (1979) and more recently Ray Moynihan's "Too much medicine" (1998).

However none of these authors hs concluded from the lack of progress with cancer over the past 70 years that the reason is the unproven assumption that cancer starts locally and later spreads.
42 people found this helpful
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Marilyn Bahena
5.0 out of 5 stars Mammography Screening--Essential for Women to Understand
Reviewed in the United States on April 7, 2013
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While this book is written with scientific arguments and a somewhat tedious review of the author's fight with the research establishment which many lay readers may find difficult, I believe that women must hear and understand the book's conclusions and share them with their doctors and the medical/insurance establishment. Gotzsche clearly shows how researchers have cherry picked research results about mammography screening to mislead the public and maintain their very profitable mammography screening programs. It details the author's ten year fight to make this information available to the public. It clearly shows the limits of mammography and the harm that routine screening mammograms can cause. Women must demand that they not be subjected to screenings that harm more than they help. Insurance companies and doctors must stop pressuring women to submit to screenings that lead to over-diagnosis and unnecessary treatments that lead to physical and emotional harm.

Gotzsche clearly shows that mammography screening does not prevent breast cancer and has little effect on mortality from breast cancer. Women need to hear that it's reasonable to refuse mammograms and that the most effective way to decrease women's risk of becoming a breast cancer patient is to avoid this screening. They need to understand that by accepting mammography screening they are exposing themselves to the possibility of totally unnecessary biopsies, surgeries, and sometimes even chemotherapy or radiation. For a short summary of these statements see the author's 2008 Cochrane Report on mammography at [...] cochrane.dk

Gotzsche makes it clear that for every 2000 women who are screened annually for ten years only one life is saved while at the same time ten women are given false diagnoses that can lead to extreme emotional distress and unnecessary medical treatment, sometimes even costing them their breast unnecessarily. I recently experienced this after a mammogram showed microcalcifications. After a very painful inconclusive needle biopsy in three areas I was told I needed a surgical biopsy (a lumpectomy where I lost part of my breast). I couldn't stop feeling that I had been trapped into two unnecessary, painful, emotionally traumatic procedures even though no cancer was present and my atypical (non-cancerous) cells may have regressed on their own without ever giving me a problem. I know this experience affected my life negatively for months, leaving me shaken and fearful. Thankfully I have now informed myself through this book and will reject further mammograms.

Gotzche makes it clear that many times cancer regresses and that ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) often never becomes invasive and that up to 40% of observed cancers had limited malignant potential and would have regressed if undetected. Women need to read this book and invite their physicians to read it so they have this information and can make informed decisions about screening and treatment.

I found this book to be eye-opening. I believe every woman needs to be aware of its conclusions so she can protect her health and emotional well-being and avoid unnecessary treatment.
53 people found this helpful
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robert w dupriest
5.0 out of 5 stars Make a difference. Read it. Tell a friend.
Reviewed in the United States on April 10, 2012
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Mammography Screening: Truth, Lies and Controversy [Paperback]
Peter C., M.D. Gotzsche

This is a great book. If you are interested in breast cancer you must read it. If you have concerns about ethics in medical research and the influence of self-interest, power, or money on research and publication, this is the book for you. If you are a woman undergoing routine screening, you will want to read this. If you are a physician who deals with cancer or women you must read this book.

This is the personal story of an heroic Danish researcher who was asked by the Danish Board of Health to "take a look at" breast cancer mammographic screening because of a pending vote. The book details a 10 year odyssey and battle to expose the truth and lies and harms of routine mammographic screening. Peter Gotzsche discovered that no one knew, or at least no one was discussing, the harms of screening, and further, that the benefits were severely overrated.

The basic premise of screening, "find cancer early, treat it when it is small, results will be better," is questioned. Does screening decrease the number of mastectomies? No, and you will discover why. What has happened to the incidence of breast cancer since screening has started? Why is there such an increase in the number of women being treated for non-malignant breast disease (called cancer in situ)? Has screening decreased the amount of advanced breast cancer? Clue: no. Why does a decrease in 5 year breast cancer mortality mean nothing?

If you start to get bogged down in the book, jump to the last few chapters. To see current recommendations from Dr. Gotsche see this:[...]

Finally, Dr. Gotsche will explain how to decrease the incidence of breast cancer by one-third.
70 people found this helpful
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Katherine Kummer
5.0 out of 5 stars Cant put it down. Just Wow.
Reviewed in the United States on October 3, 2023
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Learning a lot.
2 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Anna
5.0 out of 5 stars Libro interessantissimo
Reviewed in Italy on January 11, 2020
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Ricevuto nei tempi corretti, il libro è divulgativo ma per gli appassionati o gli addetti ai lavori viste le citazioni a numerosi studi e l'addentrarsi in tematiche specialistiche. Vale la pena leggere un libro di questo medico e ricercatore, un tempo a capo della Cochrane, quindi ben consapevole delle dinamiche della ricerca e delle sue a volte affrettate conclusioni.
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Jose Lopez
5.0 out of 5 stars Riguroso análisis
Reviewed in Spain on September 24, 2017
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Metodología, riguroso y seriedad en el análisis. Imprescindible su lectura si pretendemos políticas serias en salud pública. No puedo más que recomendarlo
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing
Reviewed in France on July 18, 2017
Verified Purchase
For all those who no longer want to blindly submit to breast cancer screening, increasingly criticized by doctors and patients. The public authorities continue their propaganda. I hope it will come to an end soon and we will understand that there is more damage than benefits.
Read absolutely ..
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The Wikipedian
5.0 out of 5 stars Eye opening
Reviewed in Canada on January 24, 2013
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Health care and science generally is far from being a dry and numerical en devour. This book is an amazing overview of the politics, money and personal pride behind breast cancer screening which unfortunately is getting in the way of health. Doing more is not necessarily doing better. Sometime we really just need to shout "doctor don't just do something stand there"
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christophfischer
5.0 out of 5 stars ein lesenswertes Buch
Reviewed in Germany on May 12, 2014
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Sehr informativ und umfassend. Das Buch berichtet auch über die Hintergründe der bekannten Mammographiestudien, ein Muss in der aktuellen Situation, das Swiss Medical Board hat ja von der Einführung eines Mammographiescreenings in der Schweiz abgeraten.
2 people found this helpful
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