This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Family history not a factor in rates of invasive disease, nodal involvement
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Researchers conducting a retrospective study of more than 1,000 women with breast cancer aged 40 to 49 years have found that women without a family history of disease develop breast cancer at the same rates as women with a history.
Based on those results, Stamatia V. Destounis, MD, radiologist and managing partner of Elizabeth Wende Breast Care in Rochester, N.Y., and colleagues said women in this age group should get annual mammography screening. Destounis presented the results at the 2011 Radiological Society of North America Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting in Chicago.
“In the [40- to 49-year-old] age group, we found a significant rate of breast cancer and similar rates of invasive disease in women with and without family history. Additionally, we found the lymph node metastatic rate was similar,” Destounis said in a press release. “We believe this study demonstrates the importance of mammography screening for women in this age group, which is in opposition to the recommendations issued by the task force.”
The US Preventive Services Task Force in 2009 recommended against routine annual screening for this population. The recommendation was controversial, and the task force came under attack from politicians and physicians.
Destounis and colleagues reviewed data on 1,071 women diagnosed with 1,116 cancers at Elizabeth Wende Breast Care from 2000 to 2010. Roughly two in five women had a family history of breast cancer, whereas 61% did not.
Among women without a family history, 64% had invasive disease and 36% had noninvasive disease; 29.4% had positive lymph nodes. In the women with a family history, 63.2% had invasive disease and 36.8% had noninvasive disease; 31.3% had positive lymph nodes.
For more information:
Earn CME this spring at the HemOnc Today Breast Cancer Review & Perspective meeting to be held March 23-24, 2012 at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront. See details at HemOncTodayBreastCancer.com.
 |
Follow HemOncToday.com on Twitter. |