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View the Table of Contents for the March 2008 issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention
Wartman and Weinstock Page 469
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Evidence linking sex hormone concentrations with risk of recurrence in women diagnosed with breast cancer is limited; however, beneficial effects of antiestrogenic therapy on recurrence-free survival suggest that these hormones affect progression and risk of recurrence. Rock and colleagues examined whether baseline serum concentrations of estradiol, testosterone and sex-hormone binding globulin (SHBG) were associated with recurrence-free survival. Although genetic and metabolic factors probably modulate the relationship between circulating sex hormones and risk, results from this study provide evidence that higher serum estrogen concentration contributes to risk of recurrence in women diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer.
Bigenwald et al. Page 706 Several observational studies have demonstrated that magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is markedly more sensitive than mammography for screening women over age 25 at high risk of BRCA1/2 breast cancer; however, MRI is more costly and less specific than mammography. Bigenwald and colleagues investigated the extent to which the low sensitivity of mammography is due to greater breast density in this high-risk group. They found that, although mammography may be somewhat more sensitive for detecting invasive cancers with lower rather than higher breast density, even with low density, sensitivity was less than 50%. The authors conclude that it is necessary to add MRI to mammography for screening women with BRCA mutations, even if their breast density is low.
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