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Study: Mammogram false-positive risk low

Physician Practice Advisor, September 3, 2004

A new study finds that only one in five women who have mammograms every two years will have to undergo follow up evaluation for a false-positive finding. Only one in 16 will have an unnecessary invasive procedure over two decades. The study, published August 23, 2004, in the online edition of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, should reassure physicians and patients that the risks of breast cancer screening are minimal given its notable benefits.

Scientists from the Cancer Registry of Norway reviewed data of 83,416 women from the Norwegian Breast Cancer Screening program, a uniform national program providing biennial screening mammography for women ages 50 to 69.

The authors found that women who begin biennial screening mammography at age 50 or 51 and participate in screening for 20 years had a cumulative 20-year risk of 20.8% for false-positive recall. The risk for undergoing invasive procedures with benign findings was considerably lower at 6.2%. Most of those were for fine needle aspiration (3.9%). Only about one in 66 women had a core biopsy with benign findings (1.5%). Fewer than one in 100 women had open biopsy with benign findings (0.9%).

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