Mammography and Early Breast Cancer Detection

Alan B. Hollingsworth, M.D., serves as medical director of Mercy Breast Center, a screening and diagnostic facility at Mercy Hospital, Oklahoma City. He received his MD with Distinction from the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine in 1975 where he was elected First vice-president of Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. He completed a residency in general surgery at the University of Oklahoma that included a one-year fellowship in surgical pathology at UCLA. He limited his practice to breast cancer surgery in the 1980s and was the founding medical director of Oklahoma’s first multidisciplinary breast clinic at his alma mater where he was also named as the first holder of the G. Rainey Williams Chair in Surgical Breast Oncology. He was one of the first physicians in the country to begin a formal risk assessment program in 1993, and today his practice is limited to risk assessment, genetic testing, and multimodality screening for high-risk patients.

“detailed, clearly written chapters...the author...uses his expertise and current findings to convince readers that screening is still worth it. There are an abundance of ‘less-is-more’ resources available on this subject; however, Hollingsworth’s confident, accessible argument against such a philosophy provides a welcome look at another option”—Library Journal; “Hollingworth provides some fascinating insight into how the medical establishment’s thinking on mammograms...will be helpful to those who are undecided about the efficacy of screening mammograms...intriguing book for a public library to consider for readers looking to delve deeper into the history of yellow fever through first-hand accounts”—Watermark Review; “What a prodigious accomplishment! My congratulations to Dr. Hollingsworth!”—Stephen Feig, M.D.

• Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsPreface1. Last Word vs. Final Word2. Early Diagnosis May Be the Key, but It’s Not a Lock3. Biology Can Trump, but Size Matters4. Prostate Is Not Breast, So Give It a Rest5. The Four Horsemen That Inflate the Power of Mammography6. The Four Horsemen Are Throttled by Clinical Trials, but O Canada!7. The Mammography Civil War (1993–1997)8. The Number Games9. The (Over)Selling of Mammography10. The Evidence for ­Evidence-Based Medicine (or, How to Raise the Bar of Bias: An Editorial)11. Blame It on Canada (and Something’s Rotten in Denmark, Too)12. Overdiagnosis: Embracing Your Inner Malignancy13. Overdiagnosis Part 2: A Way Out of the Wet Paper Bag14. The Task Force Opens Fire15. The Zombies Among Us16. Circumstantial ­Evidence-Based Medicine17. The Social Tsunami of ­Anti-Screening18. The 2015 ACS Peace Accord—Science or Societal Pressure?19. A Journey to the Pathology Lab to View the ­By-Products of Screening20. Risk-Based Screening—It Feels So Right, but Wait…21. The Greatest Story Never Told22. The Myth of Mammography23. Do These Genes Make Me Look Dense?24. The Emperor of All Modalities25. The Bright Side of the Dark Side of the Force26. The Crystal Ball Is Fair to Partly CloudyChapter NotesBibliographyIndex