Study: Mammograms every 2 years for older women

For women ages 66 to 74, getting a mammogram every two years appears as good as getting one every year, according to a new study.

"Your risk of having breast cancer detected at a later stage is no greater if you screen every two years compared to every year," said Dejana Braithwaite of the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of California, San Francisco.

She compared annual screenings with every-other-year ones and whether the cancer was diagnosed at a late stage. And she compared how the two intervals affected the number of "false-positive" results, in which mammograms interpreted as possibly showing cancer actually did not do so after further testing.

Women screened every year were more likely to have false-positive test results, she said.

The study was published online Tuesday in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. -- HealthDay