Very low mammographic breast density worsens the prognosis of breast cancer, according to a recent study from the University of Eastern Finland. Disease free survivals as well as overall life expectancies were significantly shorter in women with very low density breasts in comparison to women with high density breast tissue.
The lower the breast tissue density, the less fibroglandular tissue there is compared to fat tissue. In the future, these findings may prove significant for the assessment of breast cancer prognosis and treatment planning.
The study involved 270 breast cancer patients at Kuopio University Hospital, aged between 32 and 86 years. Out of the women with very low breast tissue density, 70.7% were alive at the end of the sixyear follow-up, whereas out of women whose proportion of glandular tissue was higher than 10%, 87.7% were alive at the same time. Lower breast tissue density was also associated with more aggressive higher grade tumours.
The study was published in the journal, European Radiology.
