A NESTED CASE-CONTROL STUDY OF MAMMOGRAPHIC PATTERNS, BREAST VOLUME, AND BREAST-CANCER (NEW-YORK-CITY, NY, UNITED-STATES)

The relations of Wolfe mammographic patterns, quantitative mammographi c densities, and mammographically estimated breast size to breast canc er risk were investigated prospectively in a case-control study nested in the New York University Women's Health Study, a cohort of 14,291 w omen in New York City, NY (United States), The archived mammograms of 197 breast cancer cases who were identified during the first 5.5 years of the study and of 521 individually matched controls from the same c ohort were retrieved and classified according to Wolfe parenchymal pat terns and mammographic densities by two expert radiologists. Breast si ze and volume were estimated on the mammogram's cranio-caudal projecti on. In both premenopausal and postmenopausal subjects, the risk of bre ast cancer increased progressively with increasing density and percent density area, A significantly increased risk was found also for Wolfe pattern DY in premenopausal women and P2 pattern in postmenopausal su bjects, In premenopausal women, mammographically determined breast vol ume and breast height also were associated positively with breast canc er risk Although the results of the present study confirmed that mammo graphic parenchymal patterns and densities were important predictors o f breast cancer risk, their practical use in screening seems limited d ue to the high prevalence of high risk patterns.