Breast parenchymal patterns and their changes with age

Abstract

In studies on mass screening, it has often been reported that tumours in breasts with dense parenchyma are difficult to detect and may have a more advanced stage at diagnosis. Shorter rescreening intervals have been suggested for these women but, before recommending such a strategy, it is important to investigate how often dense breast parenchyma (P2 and DY patterns according to Wolfe) is actually present in a screening population and to what extent these patterns change with age. The prevalence of dense breast parenchyma (P2 and DY) in our study population was 33% at first examination (n = 2581), which is fairly low compared with other screening populations. Its presence was strongly, inversely age-dependent. Breast patterns of 1177 women, aged 35–85 years, were followed for 12 years. In 39% (182/461) of the women with a P2 or DY pattern at their first examination, regression to a lucent pattern (N1 and P1) occurred over the years. The majority of these women were assumed to have reached menopause in the follow-up period. These findings support the hypothesis that the presence of dense breast parenchyma is related to the reproductive period and indicate that shortening the rescreening intervals would be most effective in pre-menopausal age groups.