More than half of women who get a mammogram each year will have at least one false alarm over a 10-year timespan, according to a new study.
And 7 to 9 percent of women unnecessarily undergo a biopsy because of this false alarm, according to the Annals of Internal Medicine study.
"In most cases, a recall doesn't mean you have cancer," study researcher Rebecca Hubbard, Ph.D., a biostatistician at the Group Health Research Institute in Seattle told WebMD. "Hopefully, there will be less anxiety about getting a recall."
Researchers, who also came from California, North Carolina and Florida, found that if women instead got screened every other year instead of every year, they can cut the number of women who are falsely alerted to breast cancer by about a third. However, the danger with this is that some women's breast cancer will not be caught until it has progressed to a later stage.
"I think it gives us quantification of risks and benefits so when individuals consider how frequently to screen they can think of what their risk of cancer is and what their risk tolerance is for potentially getting a false positive," Hubbard told Reuters.
The study was based on the health data of 169,000 women ages 40 to 59 who live in the United States.
Right now, women are recommended by the United States Preventive Services Task Force to get a mammogram every other year starting at age 50 until age 74, though at-risk women should consult their doctor about their particular screening schedule.
The USPSTF came up with these controversial new recommendations in 2009, after previously recommending mammograms starting at age 40, largely because of the danger of the false benefits seen in this Annals of Internal Medicine study, Reuters reported.
However, other health groups including the American Cancer Society recommend that women ages 40 and older should have a mammogram every year to screen for breast cancer, and should continue having mammograms unless they have medical problems (like heart failure or severe dementia) that would hinder them.
The Los Angeles Times also reported that another study came out this month showing that there was very little difference in cancer detection rates between the more traditional film mammography and the newer digital mammography among women ages 50 to 79 (though younger women ages 40 to 49, who may have denser breasts, might benefit more from the digital mammography).
And soon, 3-D mammography might be coming your way -- earlier this year, the FDA approved a mammography device that creates 3-D breast images to make tumors more visible, the Associated Press reported.