Treatment with tamoxifen was associated with reduced breast density, most of which occurred within the first 18 months of treatment. In women aged 45 years and younger, breast density was reduced by 13.4% on average compared with only 1.1% in women older than 55 years. The researchers hypothesize that premenopausal women experienced a larger reduction because premenopausal estrogen levels are higher and so the antiestrogenic effect of tamoxifen will be greater.
Contact: Press Office, Cancer Research UK, +44 (0) 207 061 8300, pressoffice@cancer.org.uk
Low Categories of Benign Breast Disease Still Increase Risk of Breast Cancer
There are several breast abnormalities that are not cancerous, but some of these benign conditions are associated with a greater risk of breast cancer than others. A new study has found that even women with low-category benign breast diseases are at an increased risk of breast cancer compared with women without the disease.
Jiping Wang, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Pittsburgh, and colleagues looked at medical records for 11,307 women from the Breast Cancer Prevention Trial, 1376 of whom had the low-category benign breast disease. Women with the disease were 60% more likely than women without the disease to develop invasive breast cancer. Women with benign breast disease aged 50 years or older had a 95% increased risk of developing invasive breast cancer compared to women without benign breast disease.
Contact: Lori Garvey, National Surgical Breast and Bowel Project, (412)330-4621, <
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Contact: Sarah L. Zielinski
jncimedia@oupjournals.org
301-841-1287
Journal of the National Cancer Institute
20-Apr-2004