Involution of breast tissue and mammographic density

Mammographic density decreases and involution of breast tissue increases with age; both are thought to be risk factors for breast cancer. The current study investigated the relationship between involution or hormone treatment (HT) and breast density among multiethnic patients with breast cancer in Hawaii.

Patients with breast cancer cases were recruited from a nested case-control study within the Multiethnic Cohort. HT use was self-reported at cohort entry and at the time of the density study. Mammographic density and involution in adjacent non-tumor breast tissue were assessed using established methods. Linear regression was applied to evaluate the correlation between involution and four density measures and to compute adjusted means by involution status while adjusting for confounders.

In the 173 patients with breast cancer, mean percent breast density was 41.2% in mammograms taken approximately 1 year before diagnosis. The respective proportions of women with no, partial, and complete involution were 18.5, 51.4, and 30.1%, respectively and the adjusted density values for these categories were 32.5, 39.2, and 40.2% (p = 0.15). In contrast, the size of the dense area was significantly associated with involution (p = 0.001); the values ranged from 29.7 cm² for no involution to 48.0 cm² for complete involution. The size of the total breast area but not of the non-dense areas was also larger with progressive involution. Percent density and dense area were significantly higher in women with combined HT use.

Contrary to previous reports, greater lobular involution was not related to lower mammographic density but to higher dense area. Possibly, percent density during the involution process depends on the timing of mammographic density assessment, as epithelial tissue is first replaced with radiographically dense stromal tissue and only later with fat.