May 1, 2023 – Doctors have known for years that dense breast tissue is related to a better risk of breast cancer.
A study published last week in JAMA Oncology extends this data and finds that a slower lack of density during aging increases the chance of breast cancer. In addition, a slower lack of density in a breast is usually preceded by a cancer diagnosis in that breast.
The research team from Washington University in St. Louis studied around 10,000 women who had been breast cancer-free for ten years. They reported that 289 participants developed breast cancer. Their mammograms were compared with those of 658 women who were similar in age and 12 months of participation within the study.
In all women, breast density decreased over time, but in women with cancer the density loss was slower than within the control group.
“This is the first study I've seen that specifically looks at breast-to-breast changes over time, rather than averaging both breasts, which may miss these changes,” said Dr. Karen Knudsen, executive director of the American Cancer Society. The New York Times.
This information may very well be used to individualize breast cancer prevention strategies, said Dr. Graham A. Colditz, deputy director of the Institute for Public Health at Washington University in St. Louis. Healio.
“The recording and evaluation of mammographic breast density over a longer period of time should become part of standard screening,” said Colditz. “In addition, breast cancer risk models should be refined to include the evolution of density change in each breast as a risk indicator that goes beyond a one-time density measurement.”
In March, the FDA advisable that mammography centers alert women in the event that they have a breast density that would put them at increased risk for breast cancer.