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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Breast cancer risk may be partly determined by a woman's bones.
That's the take home message from Arizona researchers who looked at risk of the disease in women with higher and lower bone mineral density (BMD). Overall, the risk for breast cancer increased 25 percent for every unit of increase in total hip BMD.
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The investigators believe adding BMD to standard risk assessment tools for breast cancer might help more accurately pinpoint which women will develop the disease.
The study was conducted among around 10,000 women taking part in the government-sponsored Women's Health Initiative study. All were assessed for BMD, and for breast cancer using a standard risk model called the Gail score. Women who scored high on the standard model had a 35 percent increased risk of developing breast cancer, but when the standard model and the BMD model were combined, those who scored high on both tests had the highest overall risk.
"Future studies should investigate whether incorporating bone mineral density and Gail score with other risk factors, such as breast density, can further improve the identification of women at high risk for developing breast cancer," write the authors.
Scientists speculate BMD may reflect breast cancer risk because BMD is associated with a woman's lifetime exposure to hormones, which are known to play a role in the development of the disease.
SOURCE: CANCER, published online July 28, 2008
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