THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BREAST ASYMMETRY, BREAST SIZE AND THE OCCURRENCE OF BREAST-CANCER

Breast cancer is the second most common cancer among women in the worl d and in developed countries it is the most common. The early identifi cation of women at risk is therefore of great importance and any addit ional measures which may aid diagnosis, particularly in high risk grou ps, would be of benefit. Breast volume and breast asymmetry were calcu lated from mammograms of 250 women with breast cancer and compared wit h those of 250 age-matched controls. There was evidence that breast ca ncer patients had more breast asymmetry and larger breasts than age-ma tched healthy women. The former observation is the first evidence that high breast asymmetry may be a risk factor for breast cancer. Breast asymmetry is likely to be a predictor of, rather than the effect of br east cancer.