Report Downplays Benign Lumps Link to Cancer of Breast

Women with most types of non-cancerous lumps in their breasts are no more likely to develop cancer than the average woman, contrary to what was previously thought, researchers said in a report released Wednesday.

But if such non-cancerous lumps are spreading, the risk increases. A woman with a family history of breast cancer has 11 times the normal risk, said the report in the New England Journal of Medicine.

“The vast majority of women who undergo benign biopsies are either at no increased risk or have really quite a slight increase in risk,” said William D. Dupont of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.