ArticleBreast cancer research : BCR2016
Mammographic density and breast cancer risk: a mediation analysis.
Article in Breast cancer research : BCR, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 59 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
59 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 111 citations in OpenAlex.
- The impact of mammographic breast density on locoregional recurrence in breast cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Breast cancer research and treatment · 2025Pooled it
- How does weight gain since the age of 18 years affect breast cancer risk in later life? A meta-analysis.Breast cancer research : BCR · 2024Pooled it
- Early-adulthood body mass index, mammographic density and post-menopausal breast cancer risk: a mediation analysis.British journal of cancer · 2026Article
- Evaluating mammographic density polygenic risk score for contralateral breast cancer risk prediction.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Trace element imbalances in selenium and mercury in relation to mammographic density and breast cancer progression: a case‒control study.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Anthropometry and the Risk of Breast Cancer in Moroccan Women: A Large Multicentric Case-Control Study.Current oncology (Toronto, Ont.) · 2025Article
- Age at First Full-term Pregnancy and Other Reproductive Factors Are Associated with Mammographic Breast Density in Postmenopausal Women: A Study in Flanders, Belgium.Cancer research communications · 2025Article
- Association between Inflammatory Dietary Pattern and Mammographic Features.The Journal of nutrition · 2024Article
- Plasma C-peptide mammographic features and risk of breast cancer.NPJ breast cancer · 2024Article
- Reproductive factors and mammographic density within the International Consortium of Mammographic Density: A cross-sectional study.Breast cancer research : BCR · 2024Article
- The Prospective Association between Early Life Growth and Breast Density in Young Adult Women.Cancers · 2024Article
- Mammographic density mediates the protective effect of early-life body size on breast cancer risk.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Benign breast disease and breast cancer risk in African women: a case-control study.Cancer causes & control : CCC · 2024Article
- Early life body size and puberty markers as predictors of breast cancer risk later in life: A neural network analysis.PloS one · 2024Article
- Causal mediation analysis using high-dimensional image mediator bounded in irregular domain with an application to breast cancer.Biometrics · 2023Article
- The mediating role of mammographic density in the protective effect of early-life adiposity on breast cancer risk: a multivariable Mendelian randomization study.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2023Article
- Association and Prediction Utilizing Craniocaudal and Mediolateral Oblique View Digital Mammography and Long-Term Breast Cancer Risk.Cancer prevention research (Philadelphia, Pa.) · 2023Article
- Epidemiology and Risk Factors for Breast Cancer: 21st Century Advances, Gaps to Address through Interdisciplinary Science.Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in medicine · 2023Review
- Relationships of Residential Distance to Major Traffic Roads with Dementia Incidence and Brain Structure Measures: Mediation Role of Air Pollution.Health data science · 2023Article
- Childhood adiposity, serum metabolites and breast density in young women.Breast cancer research : BCR · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 5 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundHigh mammographic density (MD) is a strong risk factor for breast cancer. However, it is unclear whether high MD is an intermediate phenotype or whether breast cancer risk factors influence breast cancer risk and MD independently.
methodsOur study population included 1290 invasive breast cancer cases and 3422 controls from the Nurses' Health Studies. We estimated the percent of the total association between the risk factor and breast cancer that was mediated by MD.
resultsIn both pre- and postmenopausal women, the association between history of biopsy-confirmed benign breast disease and risk was partially mediated by percent MD (percent mediated (PM) = 17 %, p < 0.01 and PM = 33 %, p = 0.04, respectively). In premenopausal women, the associations between early life body size (adolescent somatotype and BMI at age 18) and breast cancer risk were substantially mediated by percent MD (PM = 73 %, p = 0.05 and PM = 82 %, p = 0.04, respectively). In postmenopausal women, the proportion of the associations of childhood somatotype and adolescent somatotype that were mediated by percent MD were lower (PM = 26 %, p = 0.01 for both measures). Hormone therapy use at mammogram was significantly mediated by percent MD in postmenopausal women (PM = 22 %, p < 0.01). Associations with other risk factors, such as age at menarche or family history of breast cancer, were not mediated by percent MD.
conclusionsPercent MD partially mediated some of the associations between risk factors and breast cancer, though the magnitude varied by risk factor and menopausal status. These findings suggest that high MD may be an intermediate in some biological pathways for breast cancer development.
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