City Dwellers More Prone to Breast Cancer, Studies Show
Based on a recent study conducted by researchers in the United Kingdom, it was found out that women who live in large cities and in urban areas are more prone to suffer from breast cancer. The research says this is because women living in the city have denser breasts.
The study was led by Dr. Nicholas M. Perry, the director of the London Breast Institute and the Princess Grace Hospital in London, along with colleagues and fellow doctors. He presented this study from a recently concluded annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America which was held in Chicago.
Dr. Perry strongly urged women living in cities and in urban areas to pay a visit to their doctors regularly and have frequent screenings for breast cancer because they are more at risk in suffering from one. However, the irony of it is that most women in London who live in cities visit screening clinics less often than women living in rural areas.
All about Breast Tissues
Breast tissues are basically made of mixtures of fatty tissues and glandular tissues. Women with greater proportions of glandular tissues normally have denser breasts. Because of that, they are more prone of getting risk cancer, about four times greater than women whose breasts have more fatty tissues.
How the Study was Conducted
Perry, along with his team carefully scrutinized at digital mammograms of nine-hundred and seventy-two women who lived in urban, suburban and the rural areas in and around the whole of London. They later found out that there was indeed a great link between where women reside and their breast tissue’s density. The results of the study showed living in London significantly have denser breast tissues, compared to women living outside the city.
Furthermore, the possibilities of having greater breast tissue density were noticeably doubled in the age between forty five and fifty-four years old. However, further studies showed that the overall differences per area were greater in women who are under fifty years old.
The team admitted though that they still need more research to identify the real underlying causes of the geographical differences in the density of breast tissues in women. Some causes would be one’s lifestyle, stress, work-related causes, or other environmental factors like that of pollution.
Whatever the reason is though, Dr. Perry advised all women that regardless of their geographical locations, it is still best to submit themselves for breast screening programmes. He also added that digital mammography should be used in screening women with denser breasts because it is easier to detect breast cancer in dense breast tissues with this kind of technology compared with the more conventional film screen.
Dr. Perry stated: “Regular breast screenings with mammography saves lives.” He added: ”Access to breast screening for women living in cities should be prioritized”.
Some Other Significant Studies
Another study that was also presented during the RSNA annual meeting in Chicago focused on the effects of the Western lifestyle on breast compositions. A team led by Dr. Miriam Sklair-Levy from the Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem, along with researchers carefully compared the breast tissue compositions of women from Israel and of women from Ethiopia who had already immigrated to Israel.
The study showed that women born and raised in Ethiopia and then immigrated to Israel had very significant number of lower breast densities than women who lived all their lives only in Israel. Later on, they discovered that Ethiopian women have started to lead a Western lifestyle, meaning, having fewer children, change in diet, and increased use of hormones. These women had higher breast densities than those who just recently moved in to Israel from Ethiopia.
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