Dense Breasts Raise Risk of Cancer ...(imate that women with invasive breast ca...),Health

In the new study, women with the highest density had the highest risk of recurrence, the researchers found. Over the 10-year follow-up, those in the highest breast-density category had a 21 percent chance of cancer coming back in the same breast, while those who had the least-dense breasts had just a 5 percent chance.

Not all the women in the study had radiation after the lumpectomy. When Narod's team compared recurrence between women who had radiation and those who didn't, overall, 22 percent of those who didn't receive radiation had recurrence, but 10 percent of those who did receive radiation had recurrence.

The women with highly dense breasts who didn't receive radiation had a 40 percent risk of recurrence, but none of the 34 women with low breast density and no radiation treatment had recurrence at the same site.

The results are for local recurrence, "not for distant recurrence or death," Narod noted.

Next, Narod hopes to repeat the findings and "to find out what it is about breast density that explains this phenomenon."

The study results raise two issues, according to Russell. "If you have a lumpectomy and you have very low [breast] density, the question is, 'Can you avoid radiation?'

"The other point [raised by the new findings] is that there are newer techniques of radiation therapy coming along, much more localized [than traditional whole-breast radiation]," she said. Women with high-density breasts may want to strongly consider whole-breast radiation, Russell suggested.

Women in the study all had invasive breast cancer, Russell added, so the findings don't apply to earlier, noninvasive cancers.

Most women probably don't know about the density of their breasts, Narod said.
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