Twin studies suggest that variation in mammographic density (MD) is genetically determined. To examine if breast cancer susceptibility genes affect MD, Ellingjord-Dale and colleagues assessed breast cancer gene SNPs and MD in postmenopausal women from the Norwegian Breast Cancer Screening Program. They determined the association between 17 established breast cancer gene variants and MD. The authors identified two gene variants (6q25.1-rs9383938 and TXNRD2-rs8141691) with statistically significant associations with percent MD. This study provides novel evidence of possible MD genetic–environmental interactions.
The clinical utility of mammographic density is hampered by the lack of objective and automated measures. Brand and colleagues evaluated the performance of Volpara, a fully automated volumetric method to assess mammographic density. The study included 41,102 women and percent and absolute dense volume were estimated from raw digital mammograms. The method showed good agreement of percent and absolute dense volumes across several mammography systems. In a high-throughput setting,...
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