False
Positive Breast Tests Tied to Increased Cancer Risk
By NICHOLAS
BAKALAR date published DECEMBER 8, 2015 12:40 PM
Women
with a false positive mammogram or breast biopsy result have an increased risk
of breast cancer over the next 10 years compared with those with a true
negative result, a new report has found.
The
study, in the December issue of Cancer Epidemiology,
Biomarkers & Prevention, used data on more than two million
mammograms nationwide, from women age 40 to 74, examined from 1994 to 2009.
Compared with women who had a true negative result, a woman with a false
positive referred for further imaging had a 39 percent increased relative risk
for cancer. Among those with a false-positive result who were referred for
biopsy, the relative risk was 76 percent greater.
The
difference persisted for 10 years, and women with extremely dense breasts who
had a false-positive result with a biopsy were at the highest risk.
Still,
the absolute increase in risk remained low, around 1 percent, said the lead
author, Louise M. Henderson, an assistant professor of radiology at the
University of North Carolina.
“While
any increase in risk is worrisome,” she added, “we don’t want women to be overly
concerned, because the absolute risk is small. Instead, we want women to think
about this as another risk factor, and talk about it with their physicians.”
Women
with false-positive results were no more likely to have additional screenings,
so the difference could not be attributed to diagnostic bias — that is, to
finding more cancers because there were more examinations.
The
mechanism is unclear, but the authors suggest that a radiologist or pathologist
may see, and send for further review, an abnormality that is itself benign, but
is associated with a future cancer.
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