How Likely is a False Positive Breast Cancer Screening Result? Veteran Researcher Explains

Approximately half of all women will receive a false positive breast cancer finding over a decade of annual screening mammograms. The causes of a false positive are numerous and some are unavoidable. Dense breast tissue shows up white on a mammogram, and do does cancer, UC Davis biostatistician Diana Miglioretti, PhD, explained in a recent interview with Patient Care.® Screening is the most important tool we have to identify cancerous lesions early, so following up on any suspicious result is essential. Miglioretti has been investigating the benefits and harms of breast cancer screening for several decades and in the video above explains the most common reasons for a false finding.

Diana Miglioretti, PhD, is professor and division chief of biostatistics in the University of California Davis School of Medicine's department of public health sciences and an affiliate investigator at Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute. Miglioretti co-leads the US Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium, a network of breast imaging registries with information collected on more than 13 million breast imaging examinations since 1994.