The effect of weight change on changes in breast density measures over menopause in a breast cancer screening cohort

IntroductionHigh weight and high percent mammographic breast density are both breast cancer risk factors, but are negatively correlated. Therefore we wanted to obtain more insight in this apparent paradox. Methods: We investigated in a longitudinal study how weight change over menopause is related to changes in mammographic breast features. 591 participants of the EPIC-NL cohort, were divided into 3 groups according their prospectively measured weight change over menopause: 1) weight loss (> −3.0 %), 2) stable weight (between −3.0 % and +3.0 %) and 3) weight gain (>3.0 %). SPSS GLM univariate analysis was used to determine both the mean breast measure changes in, and the trend over the weight change groups. Results: Over a median period of 5 years, the mean change in percentage density in these groups was −5.0 % (95 % CI: −8.0; −2.1), −6.8 % (95 % CI: −9.0; −4.5) and −10.2 % (95 % CI: −12.5; −7.9), respectively (p-trend = 0.001). The mean change in dense area was −16.7 cm2 (95 % CI: −20.1; −13.4), −16.4 cm2 (95 % CI: −18.9; −13.9) and −18.1 cm2 (95 % CI: −20.6; −15.5), respectively (p-trend = 0.437). Finally, the mean change in nondense area was −6.1 cm2 (95 % CI: −11.9; −0.4), −0.6 cm2 (95 % CI: −4.9; 3.8) and 5.3 cm2 (95 % CI: 0.9; 9.8), respectively (p-trend 
Source: Breast Cancer Research - Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Source Type: research