All Articles on Cancer

• Yearly mammograms? Expect a ‘false positive’ each decade

  In 10 years of annual mammograms, more than half of women without cancer will be called back at least once for more testing. And about one in 12 will be referred for a biopsy, according to a study of national Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium data in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
• Time to raise how many mammograms radiologists must read?

  Changing policy could make screening for breast cancer more accurate
• Screening mammograms catch second breast cancers early

  More women are surviving longer after having early-stage breast cancer, but they are at risk of developing breast cancer again: a recurrence or a new cancer, in either breast. Annual screening (a.k.a. “surveillance”) mammography has long been standard for these women, but only scant evidence on screening outcomes supported this practice. In the February 23, 2011 Journal of the American Medical Association, the most comprehensive relevant study to date shows yearly mammograms do detect second breast cancers early.