Research from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center recently published in the journal Cancer, has found that Breast cancer patients with dense breasts are twice as likely to develop cancer in the other breast.

Key outtakes from the study are:

‘Women with dense mammographic breast density (BD) have a 2-fold increased risk of developing primary breast cancer (BC).’

‘Among female patients treated at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center for sporadic, AJCC stage I to stage III BC between January 1997 and December 2012, the authors identified patients who had developed metachronous CBC (cases) and selected 1:2 matched controls who did not develop CBC using incidence density sampling, matched on attainted age, year of diagnosis, and hormone receptor status of the first BC.’

‘A total of 229 cases and 451 controls were evaluated.’

‘After adjustment for potential prognostic risk factors for BC, the odds of developing CBC were found to be significantly higher for patients with dense breasts (odds ratio, 1.80; 95% confidence interval, 1.22-2.64 [P<.01]) than for those with nondense breasts.’

‘Patients who received chemotherapy or endocrine therapy were less likely to develop CBC.’