FOX NEWS: X-Rays Studied for Breast Cancer Risk

BreastImplantAwareness.or · medicine forum beginner Joined: 11 Jun 2006 Posts: 47

Note from Ilena Rosenthal: I've been reading many articles about this
study ... this is the FoxNews piece on it.

In my interational support group for women harmed by breast implants,
are several women who were convinced some years ago that their best
option was to remove their natural breasts (and sometimes ovaries and
uterus also) ... and be implanted with silicone breast implants.

This is just one study indicating how little is really known about the
negative effects of technology that we've all been experimented with
for decades now.

www.BreastImplantAwareness.org/

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http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,201404,00.html

X-Rays Studied for Breast Cancer Risk
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
By Miranda Hitti

STORIES
•Gene Combo May Be Key to Breast Cancer Risk•Gene Test Indicates Who
Can Safely Skip Chemo•Genetic Breast Cancer Testing Needs More
Study•Breast Cancer Gene Mutation May Affect Men

Chest X-rays may raise breast cancer risk in women with the breast
cancer gene mutations BRCA1 or BRCA2, a new study shows.

Don’t rush past that word “may.” The researchers aren’t totally
certain of their findings, so they’re not giving any advice just yet.

The data need to be confirmed “before definite clinical
recommendations can be made,” write Nadine Andrieu, Ph.D., and
colleagues. Andrieu works for France’s National Institute of Health
and Medical Research (Institut National de la Sante et de la Recherche
Medicale, or INSERM).

What Increases a Woman’s Breast Cancer Risk?

But if the findings are correct, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
might be a better imaging option than mammography for some women at
high genetic risk for breast cancer, states a journal editorial.

The Breast Cancer Gene: What Should You Do?

Breast Cancer Gene Mutations

Andrieu’s study focused on women with the BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene
mutations, which greatly raise the risk of breast and ovarian cancers.

(Story continues below)

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The BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations are rare; they’re carried by an
estimated 250,000 U.S. women, states the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer
Foundation ’s Web site. Inherited gene mutations account for 5 percent
to 10 percent of breast cancers diagnosed in the U.S., according to
the Komen Foundation.

Here’s how the Komen Foundation puts the risk in perspective: “A
woman’s odds of developing breast cancer in her lifetime [assuming she
lives until the age of 85] are a bit over 13 percent if she does not
have a BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation, 60 percent to 80 percent if she has a
BRCA1 mutation, and 30 percent to 85 percent if she has a BRCA2
mutation.”

Other gene mutations may also affect breast cancer risk.

Cancer Prevention: What Really Works?

Breast Cancer Study

Andrieu’s study included 1,601 European and Canadian women with the
BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutations. The group included 853 women with
breast cancer.

When the women were about 47 years old, on average, they completed
questionnaires that asked how many chest X-rays — not counting
mammograms — they had had before and after age 20.

About a quarter of the women reported no chest X-rays, while 970 women
noted at least one chest X-ray. Data about chest X-rays was missing
for the remaining participants, who made up about 15 percent of the
entire group.

Quiz: How Much Do You Know about Cancer?

Interpreting the Results

The results show that the women who reported any chest X-rays were 54
percent more likely to have breast cancer, compared with those
reporting no chest X-rays. That pattern was strongest for women up to
40 years old and those who reported having had chest X-rays before age
20.

Radiation exposure can raise the risk of cancer. X-rays typically use
low levels of radiation that are generally considered to be safe.

The BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations may be particularly vulnerable to
radiation, write Andrieu and colleagues. However, they didn’t check
the women’s medical records to confirm their X-ray history.

“These results must be interpreted with caution,” note the
researchers, who also don’t know how much radiation the women received
from the chest X-rays. Andrieu’s team stresses that more detailed
data, preferably from long-term studies, are needed before
recommendations can be made.

Their study didn’t address X-rays and breast cancer in women without
the BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations.

Visit WebMD's Cancer Health Center

Second Opinion

The journal also includes an editorial by the University of Chicago’s
Dr. Angela Bradbury and Olufumilayo Olopade, MB, BS, FACP.

“The limitations of this report, including the imprecise measurement
of radiation exposure and the potential for differential recall among
participants, lessen the clinical relevance of the study,” write
Bradbury and Olopade.

“It is likely that the impact of radiation-associated breast cancer is
small to nonexistent among women who begin standard mammographic
screening at 40 years old, but we do not know if this is also the case
for women at high genetic risk,” they write.

If women at high genetic risk for breast cancer are more affected by
X-ray radiation, an alternative to mammography might be MRI, which
uses different imaging technology than X-rays. However, “there is
currently not enough evidence to replace mammography with breast MRI,”
write the editorialists.

They call for more work to clarify the risks and benefits of X-rays
for young women, whose dense breast tissue may affect mammography
screening, and all women at high genetic risk of breast cancer.

By Miranda Hitti, Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

SOURCES: Andrieu, N. Journal of Clinical Oncology, June 26, 2006;
early online edition. Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation:
“BRCA1/BRCA2 and Breast Cancer.” Bradbury, A. Journal of Clinical
Oncology, June 26, 2006; early online edition. News release, American
Society of Clinical Oncology.

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