Breast Density May Predict Future Breast Cancer
A recent issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute has found that breast density may be a risk factor for predicting breast cancer risk.
Discovering just who has dense breasts and how to measure breast density won’t be an easy process. According to the Bradenton Herald, the science of assessing individual breast cancer is still in its infancy, but it’s catching on. The breast cancer risk among women in the U.S. is a 1 in 8 chance that breast cancer will develop at some point during a woman’s entire life. Learning your risk for breast cancer is not difficult and does not take a huge amount of time.
Women concerned about their breast cancer risk have several options, if they are aware of their personal risk. The options for women at high risk of developing breast cancer are sometimes drastic such as when surgical breast removal is chosen. However, there are other options for lowering breast cancer risk in these women such as taking breast cancer risk reducing medication.
The down side of this type of medicine includes an increased risk for blood clots and stroke. The new study reported by the Herald found that women who have dense breasts have a significantly greater risk of developing breast cancer than women who do not have dense breasts. Until this new information can be incorporated into the current model for prediction of breast cancer risk, the strongest predictor of future breast cancer remains family history and the number of direct relatives she has or who have had breast cancer.
The current model for predicting breast cancer risk does not take breast density into account. A new generation of breast imaging machines will probably be neccessary before a good measure of breast density can be established. Having dense breast tissue means that a woman’s breasts contain a large amount of ductal and connecting tissues. Current breast imaging machines are not able to measure breast density because this type of breast tissue shows up as opaque.
Dr. Patricia Ganz, a breast-cancer specialist at the University of California, Los Angeles said during an interview with the Herald, “All this has to go into the gestalt of how you counsel the woman. It’s just another piece of information that can be used in counseling.” Dr. Ganz is the director of the Jonsson Cancer Center’s Division of Cancer Prevention and Control Research.