MAMMOGRAPHIC PARENCHYMAL PATTERNS IN PATIENTS WITH BREAST-CANCER

Introduction: Wolfe has proposed that the breast parenchyma seen on ma mmography can be classified into four patterns according to the distri bution of fat, epithelial and connective tissue, and ducts. He describ ed a strong association between the dense (DY) parenchymal pattern (PP ) and increased breast cancer risk. Patients and methods: We have retr ospectively analyzed the initial mammograms of 173 patients with breas t cancer in order to identify the PP in each case according to Wolfe's classification. Comparison was made with PP of 309 normal controls (N C). Result: It was found that the N1 pattern was the most common in bo th cancer patients (CP) and NC. However, there was a significant incre ase in DY and P2 patterns in younger CP and P2 pattern in older CP. Co nclusion: It may be concluded that in our population the prevalence of the high risk patterns (DY and P2) are probably more relevant in the younger age groups, and P2 in the older age groups, but all patterns m ay be seen with cancer.