Gene mutations in some women may cause them to instead be at higher risks of developing breast cancer when they receive mammograms with an aim to get the disease detected, a recent report unveiled.

Mammograms are used to detect cancers in women above 40 years in age when they are at extremely high risks. It has been found that the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene when mutate increase a woman's risk of getting the illness by five folds and the device proves beneficial at that point.

However, the report says that young women with such genes are put at even greater risks with the radiations released by the screening tool. Published this Thursday in the journal BMJ, the study is the first of its kind since no earlier review has focused on a relation between breast cancer and radiations.

It is being said that one in every 400 women, young or old, experiences this gene abnormality. Thus, it is better to use MRI in place of mammograms, especially in case of women below 30 years of age, since MRI does not release harmful radiations.

"It may be possible to reduce the risk of breast cancer in (high-risk) women by using MRIs, so we believe physicians and patients should consider that", said the Netherlands Cancer Institute's Anouk Pijpe.