Common Breast Biopsy Finding May Be More Dangerous Than Thought
By Kathleen Doheny
HealthDay Reporter
WEDNESDAY, Dec. 31, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- Women who have a pre-cancerous condition known as atypical hyperplasia of the breast are at higher risk of developing breast cancer than experts had believed, a new study finds.
Hyperplasia is an overgrowth of cells. When it occurs in a distorted pattern, it's called atypical hyperplasia. This condition is found in about one-tenth of the more than one million breast biopsies with benign findings done in the United States each year, according to researchers from the Mayo Clinic.
In the new study, the researchers found that about 30 percent of the women with atypical hyperplasia developed breast cancer in the 25 years after the diagnosis.
While experts have always known that atypical hyperplasia increases the risk of breast cancer, the new finding gives women with the condition more solid information about the extent of the risk, said study researcher Dr. Lynn Hartmann, a professor of oncology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.
Before the study, experts believed that women with atypical hyperplasia had about a four times higher risk of breast cancer, she said. That doesn't tell women their specific individual risk, however, Hartmann noted.
In the study, Hartmann's team followed nearly 700 women diagnosed with atypical hyperplasia at the Mayo Clinic between 1967 and 2001. After an average follow-up of more than 12 years, 143 women had developed breast cancer.
Hartmann's team validated the findings with a separate group of women with the condition at Vanderbilt University. Both sets of data found that around 30 percent of the women with atypical hyperplasia developed breast cancer.
As the extent of the hyperplasia increased, so did the risk, the investigators found.
The new research gives women some valuable information, according to two experts who reviewed the findings. One strength of the study was the "sizable sample of women followed for a long time," said Robert Smith, director of cancer screening for the American Cancer Society.
"We've always known their risk was higher," Smith said of women with the condition. However, the new study provides long-term data, he said, and shows a risk higher than most experts believed it to be.
HealthDay Reporter
WEDNESDAY, Dec. 31, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- Women who have a pre-cancerous condition known as atypical hyperplasia of the breast are at higher risk of developing breast cancer than experts had believed, a new study finds.
Hyperplasia is an overgrowth of cells. When it occurs in a distorted pattern, it's called atypical hyperplasia. This condition is found in about one-tenth of the more than one million breast biopsies with benign findings done in the United States each year, according to researchers from the Mayo Clinic.
In the new study, the researchers found that about 30 percent of the women with atypical hyperplasia developed breast cancer in the 25 years after the diagnosis.
While experts have always known that atypical hyperplasia increases the risk of breast cancer, the new finding gives women with the condition more solid information about the extent of the risk, said study researcher Dr. Lynn Hartmann, a professor of oncology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.
Before the study, experts believed that women with atypical hyperplasia had about a four times higher risk of breast cancer, she said. That doesn't tell women their specific individual risk, however, Hartmann noted.
In the study, Hartmann's team followed nearly 700 women diagnosed with atypical hyperplasia at the Mayo Clinic between 1967 and 2001. After an average follow-up of more than 12 years, 143 women had developed breast cancer.
Hartmann's team validated the findings with a separate group of women with the condition at Vanderbilt University. Both sets of data found that around 30 percent of the women with atypical hyperplasia developed breast cancer.
As the extent of the hyperplasia increased, so did the risk, the investigators found.
The new research gives women some valuable information, according to two experts who reviewed the findings. One strength of the study was the "sizable sample of women followed for a long time," said Robert Smith, director of cancer screening for the American Cancer Society.
"We've always known their risk was higher," Smith said of women with the condition. However, the new study provides long-term data, he said, and shows a risk higher than most experts believed it to be.
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