Breast density and BMI help to better identify women at risk of breast cancer – Health and Medicine

2023-07-02 02:00:40

Incorporating breast density and BMI into the diagnosis would better identify women with high breast density at risk of missing or advanced cancer.

Dense breasts, that is, those that contain a high proportion of glands and connective tissue compared to fatty tissue, are common, occurring in approximately 50% of women ages 40 and older, 40% in their 50s and 25% of women over 60. Density can make breast cancer detection more difficult and increase the risk of breast cancer.

But such breast density should not be the only factor in determining whether additional screening is warranted, according to researchers who have developed a large new study led by the Universities of San Francisco and Davis (USA).

The objective of the study, published in ´Cancer, Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention´ is to identify women who are at increased risk of breast cancer and could benefit from complementary imaging”, according to lead author Karla Kerlikowske, a UCSF professor in the Departments of Medicine and Epidemiology and Biostatistics. “We found that incorporating breast density and BMI would better identify women with high breast density at risk of missing or advanced cancer.”

The researchers analyzed density measurements from about 866,000 women, ages 40 to 78, in the Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium from January 2005 to April 2021.

The data showed significant differences in breast density between different racial/ethnic groups. Asian women had the highest prevalence of dense breasts, followed by white women, Hispanic/Latina women, and black women. Obesity was most common in black women, followed by Hispanic/Latina, white, and Asian women.

These differences in the prevalence of breast density were considered clinically important and attenuated after adjusting for age, menopausal status, and BMI. The researchers said this adds to the urgency of using both BMI and breast density when deciding who to notify about dense breasts.

“If breast density is the only criteria used to notify women, it may result in the implementation of inequitable screening strategies across all racial and ethnic groups.”concluded Dr. Kerlikowske. M.T. T. (SyM)