The Breast Itself as a Prognostic Factor for Cancer Risk

To predict long-term or short-term risk for breast cancer, clinicians have relied on family history and, more recently, tools such as the Gail model that incorporate multiple prognostic factors. However, these approaches are still fairly limited in their ability to predict the probability that the patient sitting in front of you will develop breast cancer. A more appealing strategy would be to evaluate characteristics of the breast itself to determine quantitatively what risk lies ahead for a particular woman. Mammographic breast density (MBD) is directly correlated with breast cancer risk, while involution of the milk-forming lobules within the breast is inversely related to MBD and to breast cancer risk.

To determine if lobular involution …