Higher risk of breast cancer in women with false-positive mammography result

At each screening visit, approximately three per cent of the women who undergo screening have a false positive result, which means that they are recalled for further examination without any cancer diagnosis. False-positive mammography results can cause psychological anxiety and influence screening attendance. Previous studies indicated that false-positive mammography results were associated with a short-term increased risk of breast cancer.

The new study shows that women with false-positive results are more likely to develop breast cancer than other women over the subsequent 20 years, facing, on average, a 60 per cent increased risk, suggesting the increased risk is long-term. In this study, the researchers identified 45,213 women with an initial false positive result and 452,130 women of the same age who were not recalled, all of whom attended the mammography screening program in Stockholm.

Additionally, the researchers included 12,243 women with information on mammographic density from the Karolinska Mammography Project for Risk Prediction of Breast Cancer (KARMA) study.

Reference: Breast cancer incidence after a false-positive mammography result, JAMA Oncology, DOI 10.1001/jamaoncol.2023.4519