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Reproductive factors associated with mammographic density: a Korean co-twin control study

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Abstract

To determine the mechanism by which menstrual and reproductive factors are associated with the risk of breast cancer, we examined the relationships between mammographic density and known menstrual and reproductive risk factors for breast cancer. A co-twin control study was conducted with 122 pairs of monozygotic Korean female twins selected from the Healthy Twin study. Mammographic density was measured from digital mammograms using a computer-assisted method. Information on selected menstrual and reproductive factors was collected through a self-administered questionnaire. Within-pair differences for each mammographic measure were regressed against within-pair differences for each menstrual and reproductive risk factor with an adjustment for body mass index and other menstrual and reproductive factors. The percent dense area was inversely associated with the age at the first full-term childbirth (FFTB) and the number of live births, although the associations were marginally significant with an adjustment for BMI and other reproductive factors. The non-dense area was positively associated with the age at the FFTB and the number of live births. The absolute dense area was positively associated with the duration of breast feeding. The age at menarche was not associated with any component of the mammographic measures. This finding suggests that mammographic density can mediate the protective effect of greater parity against breast cancer, at least in part while age at menarche, age at the FFTB, and breast feeding do not exert their effects through mammographic density.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the National Genome Research Institute, Korea, National Institute of Health research contract (budgets 2005-347-2400-2440-215, 2006-347-2400-2440-215, 2007-347-2400-2440-215, 2008-E00255-00, and 2009-E00500-00), Korean Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (Grant Number M10305030005), and the Samsung Biomedical Research Institute (#SBRI C- A9-218-1). The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and not necessarily any funding body.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health and Institute of Health and Environment, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea

    Joohon Sung & Donghun Lee

  2. Department of Family Medicine, Samsung Medical Center, and Center for Clinical Research, Samsung Biomedical Research Institute, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, 50 Ilwondong, Gangnamgu, Seoul, 135-710, South Korea

    Yun-Mi Song

  3. Centre for Molecular, Environmental, Genetic and Analytic Epidemiology, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia

    Jennifer Stone

  4. Department of Family Medicine, Busan Paik Hospital, Inje University College of Medicine, Busan, Korea

    Kayoung Lee

Authors
  1. Joohon Sung
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  2. Yun-Mi Song
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  3. Jennifer Stone
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  4. Kayoung Lee
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  5. Donghun Lee
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Correspondence to Yun-Mi Song.

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Sung, J., Song, YM., Stone, J. et al. Reproductive factors associated with mammographic density: a Korean co-twin control study. Breast Cancer Res Treat 128, 567–572 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10549-011-1469-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10549-011-1469-3

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