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Claus and Colleagues Receive National Cancer
Institute Grant to Study Association Between Mammographic Breast Density
and Risk of Breast Carcinoma In-Situ
Researchers in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health (EPH)
at the School of Medicine have been awarded a four year, $1.3 million
grant from the National Cancer Institute to study the association between
mammographic breast density and the risk of breast carcinoma in-situ (BCIS),
a non-invasive form of breast cancer. The study will be lead by Dr. Elizabeth
B. Claus, Associate Professor of Public Health in the Division of Biostatistics
at EPH, and will collect and review mammograms for approximately 2000
women from the state of Connecticut in an effort to determine whether
mammographic breast density can be used to predict the risk of BCIS and
whether mammograms can be better characterized with respect to high and
low risk outcomes, prior to surgical or other intervention.
As efforts to screen women using mammography have increased, so has
the number of women diagnosed with BCIS. Clarification of the link between
mammographic characteristics, such as mammographic breast density, and
BCIS risk is important because up to 20% of screened breast cancer patients
are diagnosed with this lesion and increased mammographic breast density
is associated with an up to six-fold increase in the risk of invasive
breast cancer.
Other researchers on the project include Dr. Beth Jones, Assistant Professor
of Epidemiology in the Division of Chronic Disease Epidemiology at EPH,
Dr. Carol Lee of the Department of Radiology and Dr. Celia Byrne of Georgetown
University.
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