From the ArcaMax Publishing, Women Newsletter:
http://www.arcamax.com/news/women/s-345522-916463
SEATTLE (UPI) -- U.S. researchers say a woman with benign-looking
breast lesions should not get not a biopsy but a follow-up mammogram.
In a study published in American Journal of Roentgenology, researchers
said six-month short-interval follow-up diagnostic mammogram had an 83
percent sensitivity rating -- meaning a relatively high proportion of
true cancers were being identified, with a low proportion of cases
mistakenly deemed benign.
"Because the probability of cancer is so low, we don't want to put the
patient through an unnecessary biopsy, which is an invasive procedure
that increases both patient anxiety and medical costs," study lead
author Erin J. Aiello Bowles of the Group Health Center for Health
Studies in Seattle said in a statement.
The study included 45,007 initial short-interval follow-up mammograms.
In the study, 360 women with "probably benign" lesions were diagnosed
with breast cancer within six months, and 506 women were diagnosed
with cancer within 12 months.
The approximately one out of a 100 probably benign lesions linked to a
cancer diagnosis within the year points to a need to monitor these
patients, because "we want to detect the cancers as early as
possible," Bowles said. After the six-month diagnostic mammograms,
follow-ups should continue for the next two to three years "until
long-term stability is demonstrated."