On Monday , According the researchers reported , Mammograms detected few cancers in women under the age of 40 however cause expense and anxiety because women frequently get “false positives” which require follow up to rule out cancer. The study released here in Las Vegas, by the American Society of Breast Surgeons 11th Annual Meeting which reveled that obese women not only are at an increased risk for breast cancer but are also more likely to have that breast cancer detected at a later stage and to have larger tumors at the time of detection.

Danielle Haakinson, MD, surgical resident at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix, said , “The group was divided 1352 patients into obese (n = 327) and nonobese (n = 1026) groups. There was no difference in the mean ages of the groups, but fewer obese patients presented with breast cancer at younger ages. The majority of obese women who were diagnosed with cancer found their tumors through mammography, rather than through palpation (67% vs. 56%; P = .0006). This was largely a result of the lower rate of patients who detected their lumps during self examination, as detection by clinical exam was 5% for obese patients and 6% for nonobese patients (P = .0066)”. While Dr. Deanne Attai, director of the Center for Breast Cancer, Inc, diplomat for the American Board of Surgery, and chair of the Communications Committee for the American Board of Surgery told Meds cape, “We know that these patients are more at risk for stroke, diabetes, [and] heart disease, and also now we see that they are at increased risk for breast cancer and that their tumors are larger”.

The researchers based on the analysis believe that obese women are less likely to perform usual health maintenance “including going to yearly health checkups.