Breast X-ray risks seen

CHICAGO – High-risk women who rely on mammograms as a weapon against breast cancer may actually increase their chances of getting the disease, according to preliminary research released Monday.

The study looked at 1,600 European women with genetic mutations that predispose them to breast cancer. Women who reported having had at least one chest X-ray were 54 percent more likely to develop breast cancer than those who had never had one.

This Catch-22, reported in the current issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, means women with mutations in BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes might want to consider being screened with magnetic resonance imaging instead of X-rays, doctors said.

It also suggests that women and men with a family history of breast or ovarian cancer might want to consider genetic testing to find out if they carry a mutation before they get any X-rays to the chest area, doctors said.

Exposure to ionizing radiation – the kind that comes from nuclear fallout as well as from X-rays – is known to cause breast cancer. But the risk is small enough for the vast majority of women over 40 that experts still recommend annual screening mammograms.

In women under 40, mammograms are less accurate and the radiation is potentially more dangerous. But those are precisely the women most at risk for hereditary breast cancer.

“Maybe after age 30 the risk of cancer is high enough to justify the potential long-term risk of cumulative radiation,” said Dr. Olufumilayo Olopade, director of the cancer risk clinic at the University of Chicago Medical Center. “So we traditionally recommend that high-risk women … start screening with mammography at 25.”