Experts say out of all the women who have an annual mammogram, roughly half are expected to have at least one false positive result of breast cancer at some point in their lives.

Now a new study finds those false positives may discourage a woman from returning for their next screening.

Researchers looked at more than 260,000 women over 10 years and found women with true negative results were 36 per cent more likely to return for a screening three years later than those with false positives.

The study published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention suggests the delay could be why women who received a false positive result were 20 per cent more likely to be diagnosed with a late stage breast cancer.

(ABC)