Mammograms Often Give False Positives, Study Finds

More than half of women whoget a mammogram each yearwill 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 biopsybecause of this false alarm, according to theAnnals of Internal Medicinestudy.

"In most cases, arecall 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 howfrequently to screenthey 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 amammogram every other year starting at age 50until 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 previouslyrecommending mammograms starting at age 40, largely because of the danger of the false benefits seen in thisAnnals of Internal Medicinestudy, Reuters reported.

However, other health groups including theAmerican Cancer Societyrecommend 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.

TheLos Angeles Timesalso reported that another study came out this month showing that there was very little difference in cancer detection rates between the moretraditional film mammography and the newer digital mammographyamong 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 amammography device that creates 3-D breast imagesto make tumors more visible, the Associated Press reported.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.