Higher risk of breast cancer in women who have false-positive mammogram results

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The new study shows that women with false positive results are more likely to develop breast cancer than other women over the next 20 years, with an average increase in risk of 60 percent.

In this study, researchers identified 45,213 women with a first false-positive result and 452,130 women of the same age who were not recalled, all of whom participated in a mammography screening program in Stockholm.

Breast density examination

In addition, the researchers included 12,243 women who had information on breast density, or so-called mammographic density, from the Karolinska Mammography Project for Breast Cancer Risk Prediction (KARMA Study).

The risk was higher in women age 60 to 75 years than in women age 40 to 49 years, and in women with low versus high breast density. The risk was also greater in the four to six years after the false positive result, the first authors say Shenhe MaoPostdoctoral Fellow at Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institute in Sweden and continues:

– It is important to emphasize long-term awareness of breast cancer in women who receive false-positive mammogram results. It would be a good idea to develop individualized monitoring programs for these women, with close follow-up in the next few years after a false-positive response, says Xinhe Mao.