Women with false positive mammograms are less likely to return for follow-up, study says
BOSTON - A new study finds that women who receive a false positive result on a screening mammogram are often lost to follow-up.
If you have ever received a call about an abnormal mammogram, you know it can be terrifying, but many of these scares turn out to be false-positives, meaning that after additional imaging or a biopsy, there is no cancer found. False-positive results are common, occurring in 10 to 12% of mammograms in women in their 40s.
After 10 years of screening, more than half of women can expect to have at least one false positive result. Now a new study from University of California-Davis found that those with false positives are much less likely to return for subsequent screening. Asian and Hispanic women are the least likely to return, which could contribute to health disparities.
Doctors want women to know that even if they get a callback for additional testing, chances are they don't have cancer, and that it's vitally important to return for regular screening as recommended by their providers.