Women With Dense Breasts or a Family History of Breast Cancer May Want to Consider Screening in Their 40s

By Brenda Goodman, MA

WebMD Health News

Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD 

April 30, 2012 — A pair of new studies aims to clear up some of the confusion over what age women should start getting routine mammograms to screen for breast cancer.

The studies, which are published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, show that a woman in her 40s who has extremely dense breasts, or who has a mother or sister with breast cancer, reaps the same benefits and drawbacks from getting regular mammograms as a woman in her 50s.

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An  article published in the December, 2008 issue of the journal Carcinogenesis <http://carcin.oxfordjournals.org/>  explains how broccoli and  other cruciferous vegetables protect against cancer of the breast.  Increased intake of cruciferous vegetables, which also include  cauliflower, Brussels sprouts and cabbage, has been associated with a  lower risk of breast and other cancers, yet their mechanism of action  against the disease has not been thoroughly explored.
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Thursday, 29 January 2009 00:00

WASHINGTON – The so-called breast cancer genes BRCA1 and BRCA2 can raise the risk that a man who develops prostate cancer will get an aggressive form of the disease, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday. Certain mutations in the genes indicated a man was at risk of more aggressive cancer and should be treated right away, the team at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University said. Their study of 2,000 Jewish men shows the gene mutation, more common among Jews of European descent, might help show which men have a slow-growing tumor that may not need immediate treatment.

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NCCN announces new updates to the NCCN Guidelines for Breast Cancer and Breast Cancer Risk Reduction Guidelines. Noteworthy additions include new recommendations on when to use MRIs in breast cancer evaluations, statements discouraging the use of PET/CT scanning for evaluative purposes, and new cosmetic recommendations for women undergoing reconstructive surgery.
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A  report published online on April 30, 2008 in the journal Breast Cancer Research   concluded that the use of  aspirin on a daily basis reduced the risk of estrogen receptor-positive  breast cancer, which makes up 75 percent of breast cancer cases. These  cancers have receptors on their surface for female hormone estrogen, which  fuels the tumors’ growth.

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