article_snippet.sent: The U.S. spends $4billion (£2.7billion) a year on unnecessary medical costs due to mammograms generating false alarms and on treatment for breast tumors unlikely to cause problems, a new report has revealed.
article_snippet.sent: The study, published in the Health Affairs journal on Monday is made up of $2.8bn resulting from false-positive mammograms and another $1.2bn attributed to breast cancer overdiagnosis -treatment of tumors that grow slowly or not at all and are unlikely to develop into life-threatening disease.
article_snippet.sent: Study authors Mei-Sing Ong, a research fellow at Boston Children's Hospital, and Kenneth Mandl, a professor at Harvard Medical School, say Kenneth Mandl, a professor at Harvard Medical School findings indicate that the cost of breast cancer overtreatment appears to be much higher than previously estimated.
article_snippet.sent: Study authors Mei-Sing Ong, a research fellow at Boston Children's Hospital, and Kenneth Mandl, a professor at Harvard Medical School $4bn figure is the midpoint of a range that depends upon assumptions about the rates of false-positive mammograms and breast cancer overdiagnosis.