Dr. Anne Marie McCarthy, Assistant Professor of Epidemiology at the Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Informatics, has co-authored a new article published in Breast Cancer Research. The paper, “Interplay of BMI and volumetric breast density measures and breast cancer risk for Black and White women,” looks at how body mass index (BMI) and breast density interact in shaping breast cancer risk.
Breast density is already recognized as an important factor in breast cancer risk, but it can be measured in different ways. In this study, Dr. McCarthy and her colleagues compared traditional clinical categories with newer quantitative methods that provide more detailed measures of breast tissue composition. Their analysis included data from both Black and White women, allowing the researchers to examine similarities and differences across groups.
By investigating these relationships, the study sheds light on how BMI and breast density together contribute to risk and how different approaches to measuring breast density may affect research and clinical assessments.