Substantial percentages of minority women younger than 40 are getting screening mammograms, according to a new study presented this month at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) conference in Houston.
The study used data from the National Cancer Institute's (NCI) Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium to examine the first mammograms of women ages 18 to 39 with no prior history of breast cancer. The sample included 99,615 mammograms.
Lead author Julie Kapp, Ph.D., of the University of Missouri-Columbia, and colleagues found that an estimated 34% of non-Hispanic black women, 30% of non-Hispanic white women, and 22% of Hispanic women ages 30 to 39 have reported having a mammogram.
The research showed that most of these first mammograms were for screening rather than diagnosis. False positives from screening mammograms varied slightly between ethnic groups, ranging from 10.4% to 14.1%, but false-positive rates from diagnostic mammograms showed wider disparity, from 8.7% for white women to 18.2% for Asian women.
The study findings suggest that these women may be exposed to unnecessary negative harms from screening mammography, such as false positives, additional radiation, and invasive diagnostic procedures. And false positives, specifically, may deter women from undergoing future mammography screening.
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