WHO we are ?

Dr Bour Cécile

Born in 1961 in Alès (Gard) , France ; French Baccalauréat in literature followed by Medical Studies at the University of Strasbourg.
For the full CV please click on the image

I specialized in medical imaging and radiodiagnosis in Reims and Besançon, then I established as practitioner in a group medical office based the Messina region (Lorraine) in 1993. I started the senology in 1995 and then joined the departmental organization for breast cancer screening in Moselle, the AMODEMACES, for which I joined the committee of mammography reviewers (the second reading of mammograms). I participated for more than twenty years in the screening organized in our region. I resigned from AMODEMACES in 2015, no longer being convinced of this public health system. In 2015 I became a member of Formindep (French medical non-profit organization for an independent training of medical doctors) and founded the non-profit organization Cancer Rose, which fights for an objective information for women on breast cancer screening. I am currently its President.

I am an occasional reviewer for the medical magazine Prescrire.

 I was auditioned at the Ministry of Health by three high government officials before the Citizen Consultation on Breast Cancer Screening at the end of 2015, and then I participated in 2016 at  the citizen and scientific consultation on breast cancer screening initiated by Ms. Minister Marisol Touraine, French Health Minister, with a presentation for the citizen round table and a second one for the professional round table.

Teaching in initial medical training

- Since 2017 - Member of medical thesis jury

- Since 2020 - Director of dissertations on Sociology of Health as well as Midwives dissertations focused on breast cancer screening

Teaching in continuing medical education

- Since 2015 - Speaker at conferences / lectures / conventions for professionals and patients on breast cancer screening

- Lectures at international congresses ("Congress of the French Society of Breast Senology and Pathology", Lille 2017; "A couch on the Danube", Budapest 2018; "Preventing Overdiagnosis", Copenhagen 2018, "Colloque of Bobigny", Paris 2019, "International Days on Healthcare Partnership with the Patient, Côte d'Azur University", 2020)

Research and Publications

Speaker at the Citizen and scientific consultation on mass breast cancer screening organized by French Ministry of Health in 2016, page 72 of the report, key points translated here

Robert, V., Doubovetzky, J., Lexa, A., Nicot, P. & Bour, C. Le dépistage organisé permet-il réellement d'alléger le traitement chirurgical des cancers du sein ? Médecine 13, 367–371 (2017), 10.1684/med.2017.233
(In english)

Braillon, A., Nicot, P. & Bour, C. Principles for screening: Too few concerns for informed consent and shared decision-making? CMAJ 190,E1115 (2018)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.69766

Hercé, I., Bour, C. & Faure, S. Regards croisés sur le dépistage du cancer du sein Actualités Pharmaceutiques 55, 35–37 (2016), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpha.2016.06.015

Media : press, radio, TV, podcast

Jean Doubovetzky

General practitioner and senior editor of the medical journal Prescrire.

Born in Paris in 1957, he earned his French Baccalaureate in Science in 1975. In addition to his general medical cursus, he studied general medical psychology, emergency medicine, tropical medicine, and applied epidemiology.

Thereafter, his medical activity focuses on his office practice and refugee care, with temporary activities in emergency services.

He has also been a trainee teacher, a lecturer at the Faculty of Medicine in Toulouse, and as a teacher for continuing education.

His scientific and editorial activity focuses on the writing for the Prescrire journal, of which he has been a member since 1988. He has also been project manager for the writing of medical references and recommendations for national health agencies Andem and Anaes.

Dr. Doubovetzky has published a large number of medical articles (Prescrire, Que Choisir Santé) and has translated numerous books and articles.

Since 2015, he is a member of the independent Cancer-Rose collective on breast cancer screening. He is also a member of Formindep (association for independent medical education).

Dr. Doubovetzky has no links of interest with
pharmaceutical industry or the medical equipment
manufacturers, nor with their communications
agencies or insurance companies.

Media: press, radio, TV, podcast

Sophie, Patient

I contacted the Association Cancer Rose following a breast cancer screening exam.
This exam had caused anxiety for several reasons: a lack of information before and during the exam, a long wait for the result, an error on the information for the follow-up.
Thanks to the support of the Cancer Rose Group, as well as the reading of scientific papers published in prestigious international journals and the most recent data relayed on the website, I was able to restore my serenity.
I joined the association hoping that I, at my turn, I will be able to help other women to avoid these stressful situations.
Dear colleagues of Cancer Rose, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your unfailing support, your humanism and your time without counting.
I would also like to thank Dr. Bernard Duperray for his book "Breast Cancer Screening - The Great Illusion" which I have read and which I recommend to every woman to read before her screening exam.

Since joining the Cancer Rose Association, I've learned much about organized breast cancer screening by mammography, provided to healthy women over 50 with no symptoms or specific risk factors. Few people know there has been a real scientific controversy about the benefit/risk balance of this screening for the past 50 years. Doctors and scientists worldwide cannot agree on the real benefits, but they all recognize that this screening carries significant risks.

In this context, it is critical that we, as women, are aware of the controversy and have complete and objective information before deciding whether to participate in screening. The scientific community agrees that women should be better informed about screening by using decision-support tools created by organizations without conflicts of interest in line with international standards.

I had numerous discussions about these issues with Dr Cécile Bour, and I was able to express my concerns as a patient. Dr Bour considered our conversations in her book "Mammo or Not Mammo" for women, published in August 2021. I'd like to express my heartfelt gratitude to her for allowing me to make my small contribution as a patient.
I highly recommend this didactic book, which answers the questions that everyone may have, simply and clearly. This book also shows in an interesting way how the questions surrounding this screening are approached in countries other than France, as well as how the information is given to women in those countries.
To read in order to get informed, and then for each woman to decide in full awareness and knowledge of the facts without any influence, incitement, or persuasion.

It is up to each woman to choose whether or not to accept the invitation to have a mammogram without feeling guilty or having regrets.

Marie-Ange Ducy

I graduated with a Baccalaureate D in 1974 and a D.E. in Nursing in 1977. Then, I started working in a department combining Neurology/Psychiatry and Neurosurgery in Paris.
After that, I volunteered for a mission in Africa, where I spent a part of my childhood. For three months, I worked in the operating room and triage of a field hospital on the Chadian front.
After returning to France in the fall of 1980, I moved to Germany to work in an ENT/OPH/maxillofacial surgery department.
In 1983, I returned to France for a position in Intensive Care in Nancy.
In 1985, I moved to Paris to train as a nurse anaesthetist.

After acquiring my specialization, I moved back to Lorraine to practice.
I returned to work in a Post-Interventional Monitoring Room after taking a 6-year break to care for my children. I became interested in the issue of acute and chronic pain.

At the time, the protocol and systematic nature of the answers perplexed me due to the patient's ignorance and the lack of objective clinical observation.

I then had the opportunity to collaborate with a doctor using Caycedian sophrology techniques. The positive results of this method encouraged me to pursue a master's degree in sophrology in Spain with its inventor, Professor Caycedo.

In my practice, I see women terrified by a breast cancer diagnosis incidentally discovered during a mammogram... Some are hesitant to have surgery, are exhausted and depressed, suffer in silence from the side effects, and feel guilty. What do they have to complain about? They're alive, or rather in survival mode... (If they die, they will at least die cured...)

Following a routine mammogram, I had surgery in 2014 (58 years old) for carcinoma in situ in my right breast, for which I had radiotherapy and chemo-hormonotherapy.
I am not informed of the side effects of these treatments, and I am astounded by the brutality of certain acts performed without sedation or information. As a healthcare professional, I know it is possible to do things differently...
Following a transient ischemic attack and generalized osteo-tendinous damage that became disabling, I discontinued my hormone therapy after 18 months. Classic, but unreported, side effects that no one seems to care about. The osteotendinous aftereffects are still present ten years later...

The question is, is all this really necessary? Why conduct a systematic screening? And for what purpose?
Why systematically use the same treatments and the same protocols?
A 15-minute conversation might result in significant savings...

Dr Annette Lexa

I was born in 1960 in Longwy (France). I studied at the Faculty of Sciences in Nancy then in Metz. I hold a postgraduate diploma, a Master 2 in Ecotoxicology and a PhD in Toxicology, and I have been a researcher in collaboration with the pharmaceutical industry at the University of Metz for a long time (until 1997). I am the author of several books and publications on the history of science. At the regional level, I am a member of the Board of the Lorraine Academy of Science; for 10 years (2006-2016) I have been a member of the CODERST of Moselle (Departmental Commission on Environment, Health and Technological Risks) and have lectured at the “University of Permanent Culture” for many years.

At the national level, I have joined organisations such as the “Scientific Council of the Nicolas Hulot Foundation” and “Future Generation” and the Board of directors of CRIIGEN (Committee for Independent Research and Information on Genetic Engineering)

I have been registered on the list of European Toxicologists (EUROTOX) since 2009 and have specialized since 2008 in regulatory toxicology and health-environmental risk assessment, and I have set up my own company where I work as a consultant.(http://www.rcma-expert.eu/fr/).

My expertise has raised my awareness of health risk assessment and toxicology, in relation to the exposure to CMR substances (carcinogenic, reprotoxic, mutagenic), endocrine disruptors, ionising radiation endocrine disruptors, epidemiology and modelling.

I am an independent scientist, open-minded, curious, rigorous, passionate about the method and enjoying thinking further using the tools of philosophy and the history of sciences.

I have been interested in the controversy surrounding the interest of screening since 2005 ; this subject has been a matter of deep concern to me, as a woman and as a scientist.

I collaborate to the Cancer Rose website to introduce and document the views of an expert outside of the medical world.

Sylvie, patient

Having recently been diagnosed with CCIS, I was wondering about the treatment plan proposed by the Institute where I receive medical care in Paris.

Around me, I meet many women with breast cancer who have had mastectomy surgeries. 

One of the surgeons I spoke with recommended a double mastectomy "to be on the safe side," while others recommended a lumpectomy (more or less invasive, depending on who you consult). 

This led me to begin documenting my situation. This is how I contacted the Cancer Rose Association.  It gave me the opportunity to access enlightening information and to freely exchange views with its founder, Doctor Cécile Bour, whom I'd like to thank warmly.

Existing scientific studies and procedures deserve to be made more freely accessible to women. Better communication on the benefits and risks at each stage, from diagnosis to therapy, would encourage more informed decision-making. It is also a means to regain control of your own body. This had a significant impact on my comprehension and acceptance of the disease, as well as my choice of therapy.
In my turn, I decided to help the Association.