Mammograms May Increase Cancer Risk In Some Women [Study]

Posted: September 7, 2012

A new study found that mammograms may increase the odds of developing cancer in young women whose genes put them at a higher risk for the disease, the?Associated Press reports.

The study found that the added radiation from mammograms and other tests with chest radiation may be harmful to young women, and that an MRI is most likely a safer method to screen women under 30 for breast cancer. The study didn?t definitely link the radiation to an increased risk of the disease, but is the largest to look at the correlation between the two.

Dr. Len Licthenfield, deputy chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society, said the study will raise questions about how doctors treat with gene mutations. He also said it wouldn?t change ACS?s advice regarding mammograms, and that it wasn?t possible to make a broad generalization about what women with gene mutations should do. He noted that he and the society did not participate in the research.

?Physicians and patients need to weigh the risks and benefits carefully,? Lichtenfield said. ?No one should think that they should never get an X-ray because they have the BCRA1 or 2 gene mutations.?

Having a BCRA1 or BRCA2 gene mutation increase the risk of developing breast cancer five-fold, and about one in 400 women have one of the two mutations. The abnormalities are most common in women of Eastern European Jewish populations.

BCRA1 and BCRA2 belong to a class of genes known as tumor suppressors, and in normal cells they help ensure the stability of DNA and help prevent uncontrolled cell growth. Mutations of the genes have been liked to the development of hereditary ovarian and breast cancer, as well as several other types of cancer.

The study was published Thursday in the BMJ, and was paid for by European cancer groups. Researchers followed about 2,000 women over the age of 18 with either BCRA1 or BCRA2 gene mutations in Britain, the Netherlands and France. The participants reported previous mammograms and chest X-rays, as well as their age at the time of their first screening. Of those women, 850 were later diagnosed with breast cancer; roughly half ?received X-rays, while one-third had at least one mammogram. The average age was 29.

Exposure to chest radiation before age 20 increased the risk of developing breast cancer by 62 percent, but radiation after 30 didn?t seem to affect the risk.

Source: http://www.inquisitr.com/323785/mammograms-may-increase-cancer-risk-in-some-women/

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