New research suggests that false-positive mammograms, which indicate a woman has breast cancer even though she really doesn't, cost the United States nearly $4 billion in unnecessary procedures, NBC News reported. More than 11 percent of 700,000 women surveyed between 2011 and 2013 — 77,729 women in total — spent $852 on unnecessary medical procedures after they were incorrectly diagnosed with breast cancer, according to the study published in the journal Health Affairs. Another study in the same journal also indicated that new treatments for women with stage III breast cancer are helping more women live five years after their diagnoses.
