Women are less likely to return for additional breast cancer screening after receiving a false-positive mammogram result, according to a study published Sept. 3 in the American College of Physicians' Annals of Internal Medicine.
Researchers from academic institutions across the U.S. and Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente analyzed data from 177 healthcare facilities in the Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium.
Data from more than 3.5 million mammograms performed between 2005 and 2017 among 1,053,672 women ages 40 to 73 was analyzed. Of all the mammograms, 3,184,482 of the results produced were true negatives and 345,343 were false positives.
Women were 76.9% more likely to return for additional cancer screening after a true-negative result than after a false positive, according to the study.
One limitation of the study is women could have gone on to receive care at a facility not a part of the Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium, the researchers said.
MRI-aided breast cancer screenings have been shown to contribute to false-positive biopsy recommendations while simultaneously preventing cancer deaths, according to a separate recent study.