American Expatriate Costa Rica

The denser the breast, the higher the risk of developing breast cancer

Women whose breasts are predominantly composed of denser and glandular tissue would face higher odds of developing breast cancer.

This was found by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), based on studies conducted on 200,000 women.

According to the researchers, led by Karla Kerlikowske, breast density could be the most important indicator of breast cancer risk, above the family history and other risk factors.

This density is evident in mammograms and therefore, Kerlikowske said that those breasts of dense tissue, should be valued every 6 months, because of the risk they have. In some cases, an MRI is included in the examination to study the most important cases.

It is believed that denser breasts are more prone to tumors due to cellular factors.

The team also examined a variety of known breast-cancer, risk factors, with the goal of determining the effect of each of them. Among them:

-Family history of the disease.
-A woman’s previous history of benign breast injury.
-Breast density.
-Firt-time mom after being 30 years old.

crhoy.com