众所周知，通过乳房X线照片所看到的高比例密集的乳房组织与乳腺癌高风险性相关。但是，乳房中非密集脂肪组织的作用还不清楚。发表在生物医学中心（BMC, BioMed Central）公开出版期刊《乳腺癌研究》（Breast Cancer Research ）上的新研究分析了密集（乳腺纤维腺体组织）和脂肪组织与乳腺癌风险性的关系，结果表明大面积密集与非密集组织分别与增高的风险性相关。
患乳腺癌绝经后女性的乳房X线照片与无癌的对照组相比较。该研究用精密计算机软件读片以减少人读片误差（或直觉误差）。软件只比较密集与非密集组织，不寻找特殊的不规则组织。
年长女性与高体重指数女性有更高比例的非密度组织，这不奇怪。患乳腺癌的女性趋向于有大面积密集组织和大面积非密集组织，以至于密集与非密集都有大面积的女性有最大的风险性。但是，这不一定反射在乳房尺寸上，因为风险性与脂肪相关，纵然重要，还是低于与乳腺纤维腺体组织相关的风险性。因此，具有更少量密集组织的女性的风险性低于有更多密集型组织的同乳房尺寸女性。
乌得勒支大学医学中心的Carla van Gils博士主持此研究，他说："大家知道，脂肪组织生产类似于雌激素的激素，这些激素被公认为促进ER阳性癌症生长。但是，这里指的是局部脂肪组织对乳腺癌风险性重要，而不是一般的体脂肪（即用BMI测量的脂肪组织）。因此，当评价乳腺癌风险性时，考虑两种类型组织是很重要的。"（生物谷bioon.com)
doi:10.1186/bcr3044
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Mammographic density and breast cancer risk: the role of the fat surrounding the fibroglandulartissue.
Lokate M, Peeters PH, Peelen LM, Haars G, Veldhuis WB, van Gils CH.
Abstract ABSTRACT: INTRODUCTION: Both percent mammographic density and absolute dense (fibroglandular) area are strong breast cancer risk factors. The role of non-dense (fat) breast tissue is not often investigated, but we hypothesize that this also influences risk. In this study we investigated the independent effects of dense and fat tissue, as well as their combined effect on postmenopausal breast cancer risk. METHODS: We performed a nested case-control study within the EPIC-NL cohort (358 postmenopausal breast cancer cases and 859 postmenopausal controls). We used multivariate logistic regression analyses to estimate breast cancer odds ratios adjusted for body mass index and other breast cancer risk factors. RESULTS: Large areas of dense (upper (Q5) vs lower quintile (Q1): OR 2.8 95% CI 1.7-4.8) and fat tissue (Q5 vs Q1: OR 2.4; 95%CI 1.3-4.2) were independently associated with higher breast cancer risk. The combined measure showed that the highest risk was found in women with both a large (above median) area of dense and fat tissue. CONCLUSIONS: Fibroglandular and breast fat tissue have independent effects on breast cancer risk. The results indicate that the non-dense tissue, which represents the local breast fat, increases risk, even independent of BMI. When studying dense breast tissue in relation to breast cancer risk, adjustment for non-dense tissue seems to change risk estimates to a larger extent than adjustment for BMI. This indicates that adjustment for non-dense tissue should be considered when studying associations between dense area and breast cancer risk.
