Your Breast Tissue Texture May Help Predict Your Cancer Risk

It’s well documented that higher breast density, as revealed through a mammogram, can help flag a potential higher risk of breast cancer, leading a patient to undergo additional screenings. However, a recent study published in Radiology suggests that breast tissue texture patterns, which can also be seen on a mammogram, may do an even better job of predicting breast cancer than density.

Featured experts

• Raquel Prati, MD is a board-certified breast surgeon in Phoenix, AZ
• Robert Singer, MD is a board-certified plastic surgeon in La Jolla, CA

The study from Mayo Clinic and Columbia researchers analyzed 2-D mammograms from over 30,000 women and found that there are six breast tissue texture patterns that are associated with a greater risk of breast cancer. It’s important to note that when talking about breast tissue texture, we’re not talking about the surface texture of breasts or implants, but rather what can be identified via a mammogram, says La Jolla plastic surgeon Robert Singer, MD.

“Different patterns are visible to radiologists who examine mammography images—some look clumpy, some look smooth, some look more spotty,” says study co-leader, professor of radiological sciences and vice chair of artificial intelligence and data science research in the Department of Radiology at Columbia, Dr. Despina Kontos. “But beyond making a determination of overall density, radiologists had no way to quantify these patterns and turn them into data needed to determine their link to cancer risk.”

The study was “looking for the association of risk of developing breast cancer and differences in the overall breast tissue patterns seen on mammograms, beyond the so-called breast density. In other words, the same breast density among different women may present with a completely different special distribution of this density on the mammogram image,” Phoenix, AZ breast surgeon Raquel Prati, MD tells us. “Identifying these different patterns may allow us to better predict and establish breast cancer risks than just by doing so based on breast density alone.” The goal, of course, is to lower false negatives and missed cancers on mammograms.

Dr. Prati says additional studies are needed to validate the results of this research, but it could potentially significantly impact the current breast cancer screening guidelines for women. “The results open doors to exploring future changes in the recommendations of continued long-term breast cancer screening, deviating from the ‘one size fits all’ strategy to a more tailored set of recommendations, where some women will benefit from more and others from less frequent testing,” says Dr. Prati.