The study’s results indicate that breast cancer patients with dense breasts may
benefit from additional therapies following surgery, such as radiation. Previous
studies indicate that women with dense breast tissue are at increased risk of
breast cancer.
Researchers suspected that high breast density may also increase the risk of
cancer recurrence after lumpectomy, but this theory has not been thoroughly
studied.
Study’s lead author Steven A. Narod, MD, of the Women’s College Research
Institute in Toronto, and his colleagues reviewed the medical records of 335
patients who had undergone lumpectomy for breast cancer.
Investigators monitored the patients for cancer recurrence and compared
recurrence with breast density as seen on mammogram, categorized as low density,
intermediate density or high density.
The researchers found that patients with the highest breast density had a much
greater risk of cancer recurrence than did women with the lowest breast density.
Over ten years, women in the highest breast density category had a 21 percent
chance of cancer recurrence, compared with a 5 percent chance among women in the
lowest category.
The difference in the recurrence rates at ten years was even more pronounced for
women who did not receive radiation.
In those women, 40 percent with high-density breast tissue had a recurrence
compared with none of the patients with low density.
"The composition of the breast tissue surrounding the breast cancer is important
in predicting whether or not a breast cancer will return after surgery," Dr.
Narod said.
The researchers say their findings indicate that women with low breast density,
who have a low chance of recurrence after surgery, may not need radiation but
that women with high breast density could significantly benefit from the
additional therapy.
The study has been published in the December 15, 2009 issue of Cancer , a
peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society.
Source : The Times of India
