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Cancer researchers hope breast density key to reducing risk of disease

8 August 2016 | By Wellend

ABC News, Australia have reported that a ‘pilot study into breast density among young women is being launched by West Australian researchers in the hope of reducing cancer risk later in life’.

Key points from the news report are as follows:

‘A team at the University of Western Australia (UWA) is now seeking hundreds of women aged between 18 and 40 to participate in the study.’

‘UWA senior research fellow Jennifer Stone said researchers wanted to identify factors associated with increased breast density in young women. “Women [aged over 40] with extensive breast density for their age are four to six more times more likely to develop breast cancer than women of the same age but with very little or no mammographic density,” she said.’

‘”Factors like modifiable behaviours such as smoking, alcohol use, contraceptives, all those things we know that are potential risk factors for breast cancer that could also potentially change breast density.”  Dr Stone said identifying factors linked to breast density could help inform primary prevention strategies against cancer and assist in early detection.’

‘The study’s purpose is two-fold, as participants will be measured using a new device developed in Canada called Transillumination Breast Spectroscopy, or TiBS.  Study participants will be asked about their experience with TiBS to help determine whether the method is acceptable and feasible among young women.’

‘Dr Stone emphasised that dense breasts were quite common and, while they were a risk factor for cancer, they alone did not indicate a woman would develop the disease.’