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Brian Vastag

JAMA. 2001;286:295.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Bone mineral density (BMD) is a powerful predictor of breast cancer risk in older women, reports a team from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Women with high density at three skeletal sites are almost three times more likely to develop breast cancer as women with low density, and their tumors tend to be at an advanced stage at diagnosis (J Natl Cancer Inst. 2001;93:930-936).

At the start of the study, which followed up 8905 women aged 65 or older for almost 7 years, researchers measured BMD at the wrist, forearm, and heel. A total of 315 developed cancer, and those with the highest BMD at the three sites had a relative risk of 2.7 compared with women with the lowest density.

Lead author and epidemiologist Joe Zmuda, PhD, said that while BMD may someday serve as a useful predictor of breast cancer risk, the evidence is . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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