Family history is key in cancer

Women who are diagnosed with benign breast disease but do not have a strong family history of breast cancer have no heightened risk of developing a tumor, according to a new study.

“If women do not have a strong family history, the risk does not increase,” said Lynn Hartmann, lead author of the report in last week’s New England Journal of Medicine.

Doctors have long known that changes in the breast often are a harbinger of cancer. Hartmann’s study looked at 9,087 women with benign breast disease for an average of 15 years to quantify those risks. Among women with cysts, also known as nonproliferative disease, researchers found the breast cancer risk was 27% higher than expected.