Young Women With Benign Breast Disease

Interesting.  This article is specifcally referring to having atypical hyperplasia, which is generally considered a "high risk" condition.  What I find most interesting is the fact that the risk levels associated with having atypical hyperplasia are actually stated to be less than what I've seen in most other articles.  Usually I've seen the risk stated to be 4-5 times the risk of someone without atypia; this study puts the risk level at only 3 times higher than someone without atypia.  So that's actually good news.

I am a bit confused however.  First the article says:

• "Mayo researchers have been studying benign breast disease in 9,376 women whose lesions were biopsied at Mayo Clinic between 1967 and 1991..... (T)they have found that in the entire benign breast disease cohort, women with atypical hyperplasia were more than three times more likely to develop breast cancer. They also found that risk decreases in women diagnosed with benign breast disease when the milk-producing lobular ductal glands - where cancer usually develops - shut down, a process known as lobular regression or involution."

But then they say:

• "This study was designed to look specifically at younger women in the group, because the earlier findings suggested these women were at increased risk of developing breast cancer, especially if they were diagnosed with atypical hyperplasia. Among the group of 4,460 women less than 50 years old in the study, 2 percent had been diagnosed with atypical hyperplasia, 72 percent had non-proliferative disease and 26 percent had been diagnosed with proliferative disease without atypia. Researchers found that after a median follow-up of 20 years, 326 of the women included in this study developed breast cancer. That meant the relative risk of developing the cancer was 1.5 times greater than women not diagnosed with BBD."

So if I'm reading this right, it suggests that the risk from atypical hyperplasia for younger women (under 50) is actually less than the risk for all women.  But that seems contrary to what the article is implying.  Maybe my morning coffee hasn't kicked in yet - what am I missing?

One last thing I want to point out.  Having fibrocystic breasts is often called fibrocystic breast disease or fibrocystic breast condition.  50% - 60% of women have this condition.  It's a benign condition that in most cases doesn't increase breast cancer risk or at most increases risk only very slightly, by 1.2 times.  So no one should confuse having fibrocystic breasts with what is being discussed here.