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PITTSBURGH, Feb. 15 (UPI)
_ In the near future a simple blood test to detect levels of sex hormones could predict
which women are at the highest risk of developing breast cancer, according to results
of new study published in the Feb. 16 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.
With the new information,
physicians could determine who would be good candidates for medications that can
reduce the risk of the disease.
Jane A. Cauley, Dr.P.H.,
associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School
of Public Health, led the multi-center, federally funded study.
"In our study of older
women, we found those with the highest levels of either serum estradiol or testosterone
were three times more likely than expected to develop breast cancer," Cauley
said.
"This magnitude of
risk is much higher than that observed for other breast cancer risk factors,"
she added.
Each year more than 180,000
women are diagnosed with breast cancer in the United States. Although well-established
risk factors exist for breast cancer, more than 90 percent of all women have at least
one of these factors and, individually, each factor only modestly increases a woman's
risk of developing the disease.
The research involved participants
from the Study of Osteoporotic Fractures and included 97 women who developed breast
cancer and 244 randomly selected controls.
All women were white, 65
years of age or older and not receiving estrogen.
The estimated incidence
of breast cancer was lowest (4 per 10,000 women/year) in women with the lowest blood
levels of estradiol and testosterone.
Conversely, the incidence
of breast cancer was highest (65 per 10,000 women/year) in women with the highest
concentrations of both hormones.
The research strengthens
previous reports indicating that hormone levels influence the risk of breast cancer,
Cauley noted.
"This type of information
could help clinicians direct high-risk women to consider chemoprevention for breast
cancer," Cauley said.
"Results from the Breast
Cancer Prevention Trial and the Multiple Outcomes of Raloxifene Evaluation Trial
have shown that certain medications can reduce the incidence of breast cancer,"
she added.
Unlike previous reports,
results of the study showed that testosterone and estradiol independently contributed
to breast cancer risk.
For many years, researchers
have known that estradiol, a metabolic product of estrogen, fuels the growth of some
breast cancers. The way that testosterone may contribute to breast cancer growth
is unclear at this time, Cauley noted.
_-
Copyright 1999 by United
Press International.
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