National Cancer Control Institute, National Cancer Center, Goyang, Korea.
Department of Radiology, Soonchunhyang University Bucheon Hospital, Soonchunhyang University College of Medicine, Bucheon, Korea.
Cancer Res Treat. 2019 Oct;51(4):1295-1301. doi: 10.4143/crt.2018.297. Epub 2019 Jan 29.
Women with dense breast are known to be at high risk for breast cancer, but their prevalence and number of Korean women are unknown. The current study was to investigate the distribution of mammographic breast density by age of women undergoing screening mammography, and to estimate the prevalence of Korean women with dense breasts, quantitatively.
For obtaining a nationwide representative sample, 6,481 mammograms were collected from 86 screening units participated in the National Cancer Screening Program for breast cancer. Based on the American College of Radiology Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System classification, breast density was evaluated by six breast radiologists, qualitatively. We applied these breast density distributions to age-specific counts of the Korean women population derived to mid-year 2017 to estimate the number of Korean women with dense breasts.
Overall, 54.4% (95% confidence interval [CI], 52.9% to 55.8%) of women 40 to 69 years of age had heterogeneously or extremely dense breasts, and this proportion was inversely associated with age. Based on the age distribution of Korean women, we estimated that 6,083,000 women (95% CI, 5,919,600 to 6,245,600) age 40-69 years in Korean have dense breasts. Women aged 40-49 years (n=3,450,000) accounted for 56.7% of this group.
More than half of Korean women aged 40 and over have dense breasts. To prevent breast cancer effectively and efficiently, it is necessary to develop a new personalized prevention strategy considering her status of breast density.
已知乳腺致密的女性患乳腺癌的风险较高，但她们的患病率和韩国女性的数量尚不清楚。本研究旨在调查接受筛查性乳房 X 线摄影的女性的乳房密度分布，并定量估计韩国致密乳房女性的患病率。
为了获得全国代表性样本，从参加全国乳腺癌筛查计划的 86 个筛查单位中收集了 6481 张乳房 X 光片。根据美国放射学院乳腺成像报告和数据系统分类，由 6 名乳腺放射科医生对乳房密度进行定性评估。我们将这些乳房密度分布应用于截至 2017 年年中获得的韩国女性人口的年龄特异性计数，以估计韩国致密乳房女性的数量。
总体而言，40 至 69 岁的女性中有 54.4%（95%置信区间[CI]，52.9%至 55.8%）存在异质性或极密的乳房，且该比例与年龄呈负相关。根据韩国女性的年龄分布，我们估计有 608.3 万名（95%CI，591.96 万至 624.56 万）年龄在 40-69 岁的韩国女性有致密的乳房。年龄在 40-49 岁的女性（n=345 万）占该组的 56.7%。
超过一半的 40 岁及以上的韩国女性有致密的乳房。为了有效和高效地预防乳腺癌，有必要制定一种新的个性化预防策略，考虑到她的乳房密度状况。
