False Positive Breast Cancer Screenings Could Put Women at Higher Risk

False positive mammograms could mean having a higher chance of actually developing breast cancer in the future, according to a new study published this week in the journal Cancer, Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.

The study, carried out by researchers at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, found that women who receive a false positive mammogram are 39 percent more likely to develop breast cancer over the next 10 years, NBC News reported.

Louise M. Henderson, study author and an assistant professor of radiology at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, said in a statement from the American Association for Cancer Research that false positives can contain clues to future cancer risk.

"Our finding that breast cancer risk remains elevated up to 10 years after the false-positive result suggests that the radiologist observed suspicious findings on mammograms that are a marker of future cancer risk," she said.

"Given that the initial result is a false positive, it is possible that the abnormal pattern, while noncancerous, is a radiographic marker associated with subsequent cancer."

Women should not fear mammograms results, though, because the risk of cancer after a false positive mammogram is modest, Henderson said.

"We don't want women to read this and feel worried. We intend for our findings to be a useful tool in the context of other risk factors."

According to CNN, the American Cancer Society recommends that women ages 45 to 54 get mammograms every year, and encourages women ages 40 to 44 to talk to their doctors about having annual mammograms.

"This study confirms findings from several international studies conducted over the past decade or so that show this association between having had a false positive mammogram with a higher risk of developing breast cancer in the following five to 10 years," Dr. Richard Wender, chief cancer control officer for the American Cancer Society, told CNN.

"I think we can now state with confidence that [it] is in fact a risk factor for developing breast cancer," he continued.

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