Volumetric and area-based measures of mammographic density in women with and without cancer

Abstract

We compare mammographic density in 44 women with screen-detected breast cancer and a control group of 923 women with normal screening mammograms. Multiple regression was used to compare the effects of case-control status on breast density of the contra-lateral breast. Two breast density measures were investigated: the average visual assessment, recorded on a visual analogue scale (VAS), for the two views and two independent readers; and volumetric percentage density measured by Quantra TM. We adjusted for confounding factors of BMI, HRT use, age and menopausal status. Initially there was no significant difference in mean percentage density between cases and controls using either measure of density: VAS (cases 27.5%, controls 26.9%) and Quantra TM (cases 1.2%, controls 18.2%). However, when confounding factors were controlled for, case-control status had a statistically significant effect on breast density as measured by Quantra TM (adjusted means: cases 19.2%, controls 14.8%; p = 0.002) but not by VAS. © 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.