We
looked at 1,374 women with breast cysts followed-up for 10 years.
Three thousand forty-one (3,041) cysts aspirated and followed-up
10 years later and showing that these women did indeed have an increased
risk of breast cancer, particularly if the women were under the
age of 45.
Palpable
cysts, I think, are different from microscopic cysts and if you
look at microscopic cysts, they aren’t a risk factor. Because
microscopic cysts are really just an aging process. Whereas something
has to happen for those microscopic cysts to become bigger and it’s
whatever causes those cysts to become bigger that makes that population
different from the rest of the population. And those women are at
some increased risk, particularly if they are developing palpable
breast cysts at a very young age. Because there’s got to be
something odd about those women’s breasts that they develop
these large cysts, and whatever’s odd about it makes them about
six times more likely to get breast cancer at young age.
And
it’s a very much age specific risk. In other words, if you
are 42 when you had a cyst aspirated, you were at six times risk
until the age of 45. Then from 45 to 50 that risk goes down to about
three to four, and then when you get over 50 the risk really starts
to go down fairly quickly. What I think it does is it points in
the direction that there’s something strange about these women,
and we should look at them.
