Hormones and Cancer

, Volume 2, Issue 1, pp 62–72 | Cite as

Circulating Sex Hormones and Mammographic Breast Density among Postmenopausal Women

  • Brian L. Sprague
  • Amy Trentham-Dietz
  • Ronald E. Gangnon
  • Diana S. M. Buist
  • Elizabeth S. Burnside
  • Erin J. Aiello Bowles
  • Frank Z. Stanczyk
  • Gale S. Sisney
Article
First Online:

Abstract

The use of breast density as an intermediate or predictive marker of breast cancer risk is limited by an incomplete understanding of the etiology of breast density. High blood levels of endogenous estrogens and androgens are associated with increased risk of breast cancer among postmenopausal women. We sought to examine whether these hormones are also associated with breast density. The Wisconsin Breast Density Study enrolled 257 postmenopausal women, ages 55–70 years, with no history of postmenopausal hormone use, from mammography clinics in Madison, Wisconsin. Subjects provided a blood sample for sex hormone analysis, and breast density was measured from subjects' screening mammograms using a computer-assisted thresholding method. Numerous sex hormones were associated with breast density in age-adjusted analyses. However, further adjustment for body mass index and other potentially confounding factors substantially attenuated or eliminated these associations. In the fully adjusted model, there remained a positive association between percent breast density and serum progesterone (P = 0.03), with percent density rising from 11.9% (95% CI: 9.8, 14.1%) among women in the lowest quartile of serum progesterone to 15.4% (12.9, 18.2%) among women in the highest quartile. There was also a positive association between sex hormone binding globulin and percent breast density (P = 0.06). In contrast, there were no independent associations between percent breast density and estradiol (total, free, or bioavailable), estrone, estrone sulfate, or testosterone (total, free, or bioavailable). These results suggest that breast density has a hormonal etiology; however, it may differ in important ways from that of breast cancer risk.

Keywords

Mammographic breast density Estrogens Androgens Progesterone Breast cancer 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Komen for the Cure Foundation (FAS0703857), the Department of Defense (BC062649), and the National Cancer Institute (CA139548, CA014520). Dr. Sprague is supported by a fellowship from the American Society of Preventive Oncology, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, and the Prevent Cancer Foundation. The authors would like to thank Kristi Klein and the staff of UW Health Clinics, Dr. Walter Peppler, Eva Baird, and Lori Wollett and staff of the UW OCT for their assistance in subject recruitment and data collection; Dr. Halcyon Skinner, Dr. Marty Kanarek, John Hampton, Tammy LeCaire, Tanya Watson, Matt Walsh, Jane Maney, and Cecilia Bellcross for study-related advice; Dr. Martin Yaffe and Chris Peressotti for assistance in breast density measurements; Dr. Karen Cruickshanks, Carla Schubert, and Scott Nash for assistance in sample storage; and Julie McGregor, Kathy Peck, and Dawn Fitzgibbons for study support.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010

Authors and Affiliations

  • Brian L. Sprague
    • 1
    • 2
  • Amy Trentham-Dietz
    • 2
    • 3
  • Ronald E. Gangnon
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
  • Diana S. M. Buist
    • 5
  • Elizabeth S. Burnside
    • 3
    • 6
  • Erin J. Aiello Bowles
    • 5
  • Frank Z. Stanczyk
    • 7
    • 8
  • Gale S. Sisney
    • 6
  1. 1.Department of SurgeryUniversity of VermontBurlingtonUSA
  2. 2.Department of Population Health SciencesUniversity of WisconsinMadisonUSA
  3. 3.University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer CenterMadisonUSA
  4. 4.Department of Biostatistics and Medical InformaticsUniversity of WisconsinMadisonUSA
  5. 5.Group Health Research InstituteSeattleUSA
  6. 6.Department of RadiologyUniversity of WisconsinMadisonUSA
  7. 7.Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Keck School of MedicineUniversity of Southern CaliforniaLos AngelesUSA
  8. 8.Department of Preventive Medicine, Keck School of MedicineUniversity of Southern CaliforniaLos AngelesUSA

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