Breast Cancer Risk Up With Dense Breasts, Benign Breast Disease

TUESDAY, May 17, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Among Korean women, those with dense breasts and benign breast disease at screening mammography have an increased risk for subsequent breast cancer, according to a study published online May 17 in Radiology.

Soyeoun Kim, M.P.H., from the Hanyang University College of Medicine in Seoul, South Korea, and colleagues conducted a retrospective analysis of data from a nationwide breast cancer screening program linked to the national cancer registry, involving Korean women aged 40 to 74 years screened for breast cancer between January 2009 and December 2010, with a median follow-up of 10.6 years.

The researchers note that 3,911,348 women were analyzed in the study; 58,321 developed breast cancer during follow-up. A total of 10,729 cases (18.4 percent) of benign breast disease were detected at screening among women who developed breast cancer. Compared with women presenting with fatty breasts and those without benign breast disease, women with extremely dense breasts and benign breast disease had a greater risk for breast cancer (hazard ratio, 2.75). Compared with women with fatty breast tissue, those with benign breast disease and fatty breasts and those with extremely dense breasts and without benign breast disease also had an elevated risk for breast cancer (hazard ratios, 1.49 and 2.28, respectively).

"With the current findings, we believe that women with dense breasts and the presence of benign breast disease would be potential targets for supplemental screening," Kim said in a statement.

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