Researchers See Uptick in Size of Breast Cancer Tumors at Diagnosis

Researchers say the size of breast tumors at diagnosis has decreased since routine screening came along, but they’re getting bigger.

Breast tumors are significantly smaller at diagnosis today than they were in the early 1980s, thanks in large part to better screening.

However, experts have changed screening guidelines in recent years to recommend younger women wait to start annual mammograms in the hopes of reducing overtreatment for an irregular result or false positive on a mammogram.

These changes have been controversial. Some experts are worried that new guidelines could mean missing cancer tumors.

Now, new research has found that doctors are seeing a small increase in tumor size in certain patients since 2000. But some experts are divided about what the study results could mean for patients and screening recommendations.

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Written by Ann Pietrangelo for healthline.com

(photo credit healthline.com)