Every year, millions of women get mammograms to screen for breast cancer. About 10% of them are called back for further testing. And 7% to 12% of those women receive a false-positive result, meaning that the mammogram detects something that looks like cancer, but turns out not to be.
Many women are not eager to repeat the experience, and those who receive a false-positive cancer detection are far less likely to return for their next screening, according to new research published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
The study looked at data on more than a million patients between ages 40 and 73. The researchers found that, after getting a negative mammogram result, 77% of all women came back for their next scheduled screening. But for women told to come back for another mammogram in six months due to a false positive, only 61% of them returned. The study also found that 67% of women came back for another screening when a biopsy was recommended. The return rate dropped even lower when women received two false-positives in a row; just 56% came to their next mammograms.
