![]()
Obese women are at a higher risk for breast cancer, however, findings from a new study show that obese women are at increased risk for having their mammograms read as abnormal when, in fact, everything is OK. The "false positive" results may be due to poor image clarity because of thicker volume of breast tissue compressed in the mammogram machine, additional images required to adequately cover the entire breast in each X-ray, and increased search area that radiologists have to review. They suggest that losing weight could improve screening mammography performance. However, there is no solid evidence that mammograms save lives, yet the public is led to believe just that. The benefits of mammograms are completely controversial and if you want to know more you can read my past article on the topic.
Yahoo! News May 24, 2004