False Positive Screening Controversy

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The controversy I will be discussing is the effect of mammography screening on breast cancer and the high rate of false-positive results. False positive is when a patient is diagnosed with cancer but does not actually have it. There are many risks associated with false-positive results. If this has been an occurring problem why isn’t more training encouraged?

1. Ten-Year Risk of False Positive Screening Mammograms and Clinical Breast Examinations

This article is credible because it is from the New England Journal of Medicine, which is the oldest continuously published medical periodical. The New England Journal of Medicine employs an extremely rigorous peer-review and editing process to assess manuscripts for accuracy, novelty, and importance.
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For younger women false-positive results were higher than older women. The risks of false-positive results increased as more screenings were done. After 10 screening the cumulative risk for having a false-positive result was 49.1 percent for mammograms. The risks for false-positive results were also higher for women between 40 and 29 years of age. In the United States, abnormal mammographic readings are more common than they are in other countries. Approximately 11 percent of mammograms are read as abnormal. Radiologists in the U.S are reading too many false-positive mammogram results and it should be investigated. Ways to reduce these many false-positive results need to be developed. Meanwhile, women should be educated about the chances of having a false-positive on …show more content…
2227 records were used for the study. 9747 screenings were obtained over the course of 10 years. These results were read by 93 radiologists. 531 of the women had at least one mammogram that was a false-positive result (Christiansen 2000). Of the 93 radiologists, 48 of those had false-positive percent’s of 5 percent or less, 17 had more than 5 percent to 10 percent and 28 had more than 10 percent. Age, previous open biopsy, family history of breast cancer, menopausal status, estrogen use, BMI, and race were all factors that had an effect on the frequency of false-positive results. The risk of experiencing these false-positives results is