Uc Science Today

Younger women are more likely to develop breast cancer if their breasts are dense. This means they have more supportive tissue, rather than fatty tissue, around the ducts. That’s according to a new study by Karla Kerlikowske of the University of California, San Francisco. “The risk of breast cancer increases with age, but if you look among younger women who do develop breast cancer, more of them will have dense breasts. “ Cancer rarely develops in fat, so that’s why when it comes to breast density older women have a smaller risk of developing the disease. And that’s because compared to younger women, they tend to have fatty breast tissue. “In older women it maybe a third of women that have dense breasts, when in premenopausal women it is about two-thirds of women who have dense breasts. It is a more common risk factor, but it is also a strong risk factor. ”