Some Women Avoid Breast Cancer Screening After False-Positive Mammogram Results
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"Some women who receive a false-positive result on a mammogram may not come back for routine mammograms in the future, according to results from a large study.
False positives on a mammogram are apparent abnormalities that, after further evaluation, are found not to be cancer. But the additional testing needed to rule out cancer can be time-consuming, costly, and stressful. Follow-up tests, such as a biopsy of the breast, have risks of their own.
To conduct the study, the researchers analyzed 3.5 million mammograms from about 1 million women who were screened in the United States between 2005 and 2017.
Among women who had a true-negative result, 77% returned to routine screening in the following 30 months. By contrast, 61% of women who had a false-positive result that required a repeat diagnostic mammogram in 6 months (a short-interval follow-up exam) returned to routine screening, as did 67% of women who required a biopsy.
Women who required additional imaging a few weeks after receiving what turned out to be a false-positive result were only slightly less likely to return to routine screening than those who required no workup (75% did). But only 56% of women who received recommendations for short-interval follow-up on two consecutive screening mammograms came back to screening.
Investigators with the NCI-funded Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium (BCSC)Exit Disclaimer published the findings September 3 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
“Our results are concerning, because mammography screening is the most important strategy for reducing death from breast cancer,” said lead investigator Diana Miglioretti, Ph.D., of the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center and a leader of the BCSC."