Jenn Simmons, MDThe Doctor with The Answer to Breast Cancer

Breast Cancer Overdiagnosis: What Autopsy Studies Reveal | Dr. Jenn Simmons

Name: Breast Cancer Overdiagnosis: What Autopsy Studies Reveal | Dr. Jenn Simmons
Uploaded: 2025-09-12T12:01:33+00:00
Duration: 47 s
Channel: Jenn Simmons, MD
Description: Dr. Jenn Simmons explains that autopsy studies find microscopic evidence of breast cancer in about 40% of women who did not die of breast cancer, while…

12 Sept 2025 · 1 min

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0:47

Dr. Jenn Simmons explains that autopsy studies find microscopic evidence of breast cancer in about 40% of women who did not die of breast cancer, while the clinically diagnosed incidence in the living population is roughly 0.1%. She uses this gap to argue that many microscopic cancers are not clinically relevant (overdiagnosis) and draws an analogy to incidental microscopic thyroid cancers that do not require treatment.

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40%.

About 0.1%.

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When we look at autopsy studies of women who did not die of breast cancer, 40%. So 40% of women on autopsy studies will have evidence of breast cancer. But the incidence of breast cancer in the population that we know is about 0.1%. There's a big difference there. What's happening to the rest of them. And the truth is that the rest of them are not clinically relevant and that we all have changes in our body. And if we took all of these organs out, like the thyroid is another one. Yes. If everyone had their thyroid taken out and looked at under the microscope, a large percentage would have microscopic evidence of thyroid cancer. Do they all need to have their thyroid glands out? Do they all need to be treated for thyroid cancer? No, of course not.