Affiliations of authors: M. Freedman, S.-C. B. Lo, J. Zeng, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC; J. San Martin, E. L. Walls, Eli Lilly and Company, Lilly Corporate Center, Indianapolis, IN; J. O'Gorman, Biogen, Cambridge, MA; S. Eckert, Applied Logic Associates, Inc., Houston, TX; M. E. Lippman, Lombardi Cancer Center, Georgetown University Medical Center.
Correspondence to: Matthew Freedman, M.D., M.B.A., Georgetown University Medical Center, Suite 603, 2115 Wisconsin Ave., N.W., Washington, DC 20007 (e-mail:Freedmmt{at}georgetown.edu).
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ABSTRACT |
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INTRODUCTION |
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High mammographic density can obscure subtle breast abnormalities, making it not only more difficult to diagnose small-volume breast cancer but also more likely for a woman to have a false-positive mammogram reading (12). Approximately 50% of breast cancers are detected by mammography as masses (13). Such masses are more difficult to detect and to classify than are microcalcifications because surrounding radiographically dense epithelial or glandular tissue can obscure masses, especially in women with radiologically dense breasts (14).
Breast density, as measured by mammography, is determined by the relative amounts of fat and fibroglandular tissue present. Fat is radiolucent and appears dark on radiography. In contrast, fibroglandular tissue, which contains a mixture of fibrous connective tissue (stroma) and glandular tissue (epithelial cells), is more dense and appears white on mammograms. The Wolfe classification (15) uses visual assessments of the relative percentage of fat and fibroglandular tissue to determine breast density. This method identifies four parenchymal patterns (N1, P1, P2, and DY) that represent a spectrum from a low-density, fatty breast (N1) to a significantly dense breast (P2 and DY).
Breast density varies among individuals according to the inherent relative amounts of fat, connective tissue, and epithelial tissue present (16), all of which can be influenced by endogenous estrogen levels (17,18), the use of postmenopausal hormone replacement therapy (HRT) (19,20), and body mass index (21). A recently published subgroup analysis of the prospective, randomized Postmenopausal Estrogen/Progestin Interventions (PEPI) Trial (22) confirmed the results of previous observational studies; i.e., 3 years of estrogen alone or estrogen plus progestin increased mammographic density in 8% and 24% of women, respectively.
In light of the effects of estrogen to increase breast density, the effect of selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs) on breast density becomes increasingly important as more SERMs are developed and approved for use in postmenopausal women. SERMs interact with both and
estrogen receptors, resulting in estrogen agonist or antagonist effects depending on the tissue (23,24). Raloxifene, a SERM with estrogen agonist effects on bone and lipid metabolism and estrogen antagonist effects in the breast and uterus, is approved in the United States for the prevention (25) and treatment (26) of postmenopausal osteoporosis.
A previous study (27) has shown that raloxifene reduces the incidence of invasive breast cancer in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis. However, raloxifene's effects on mammographic breast density have not been studied.
In this study, we evaluated the effects of 2 years of treatment with raloxifene, estrogen, or placebo on breast density using a digitized analysis of mammograms that quantifies the ratio of fibroglandular tissue to fat. We analyzed baseline and 2-year mammograms from a subgroup of postmenopausal women enrolled in an international osteoporosis prevention trial (28).
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SUBJECTS AND METHODS |
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The double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled osteoporosis prevention trial of 619 postmenopausal women was conducted at 38 study centers in 10 countries in North America, Europe, South Africa, and New Zealand (28).
The osteoporosis prevention trial enrolled healthy postmenopausal women, aged 45 through 60 years, who had undergone hysterectomy no more than 15 years before the study. Women in this trial were to have lumbar spine bone mineral density (BMD) measurements in the range of 2 standard deviations (SDs) above to 2.5 SDs below the mean peak lumbar spine BMD for premenopausal women, inclusive. Women were excluded from the osteoporosis study if they had any of the following: breast cancer at any time or any cancer within the previous 5 years, thromboembolic disorders or cerebrovascular accident, diabetes mellitus, chronic liver disease, impaired kidney function, or clinically significant menopausal symptoms.
Systemic HRT was permitted before, but not during, the osteoporosis study and only if it had been discontinued at least 6 months before study entry. Low-dose vaginal estrogens, except estradiol, were permitted up to three times per week during the study. Concomitant use of progestins, androgens, bone-active agents, or other SERMs was not permitted. Women who had ever used systemic fluoride therapy (except for dental prophylaxis) or had taken bisphosphonates were excluded.
In the osteoporosis trial, a randomized block design was used to assign women to receive either raloxifene HCl (Evista®; Eli Lilly and Company, Indianapolis, IN) at a dose of 60 mg/day or 150 mg/day, conjugated equine estrogens (Premarin®; Wyeth Ayerst, Philadelphia, PA [ERT]) at a dose of 0.625 mg/day, or placebo. Randomization was stratified within each investigative site. Because raloxifene and Premarin pills have different appearances, all women took two pills dailyraloxifene or a placebo of identical appearance and Premarin or a placebo of identical appearanceto maintain the double-blind design of the study. Study visits were scheduled every 3 months for 2 years.
The protocol was approved by local ethical review boards, and all women provided written informed consent for participation in accordance with the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki.
Women were selected for participation in this breast density substudy if they were enrolled at English-speaking sites, had both baseline and 2-year mammograms of the craniocaudal (CC) view that had comparable positioning, and met the osteoporosis prevention study criteria described above (Fig. 1). The analysis of this subset of women was planned before any mammograms were digitized and without prior knowledge of which patients at eligible sites would participate. The "Appendix" section lists the investigators who participated in this breast density substudy.
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Mediolateral oblique (MLO) and CC views of each breast were obtained at baseline and at 2 years. Mammograms taken up to 1 year before study entry were considered to be "baseline." Because the statistical analysis results from the CC and MLO views were similar, all results presented are from the CC view from both breasts. Films were scanned (Lumiscan Model 150; Lumisys, Inc., Sunnyvale CA), and the scanned images were segmented (see description below) by the radiologist with a computer-assisted technique called "interactive thresholding." The interactive threshold technique uses software that allows the radiologist to draw a boundary around objects that have similar degrees of whiteness on the digitized breast image. To accommodate mammograms with different exposures, a threshold level of whiteness is selected by the radiologist interacting with the computer. Using this method, the radiologist can outline one larger connected area or several separate areas of fibroglandular tissue at the same time in a process called "segmentation." The computer then calculates the area of tissue that has been interactively outlined. The breast region that projects behind the axillary fold was marked and excluded from further analysis.
With the use of this interactive segmentation software developed at Georgetown University Medical Center (Washington, DC), the edge of the breast was first defined by an automated process. One radiologist who was blinded to therapy (M. Freedman), aided by the software, assigned a threshold to the digitized mammograms to define areas of dense breast tissue. A previous study (29) has indicated that this method results in very low intra-observer and inter-observer variability. The ratio of the area of dense breast tissue to the total breast area is the percent density.
An example of the results of interactive thresholding is shown in Fig. 2. Fig. 2
represents a 2-year digitized mammogram from one subject (CC view, left breast); the right panel in the figure represents the segmentation of the same mammogram, showing fibroglandular tissue (dark area) and surrounding tissue, as defined by this interactive thresholding method. This example is from a subject assigned to receive raloxifene at a dose of 60 mg/day who had an endpoint density of 7.9%.
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Statistical Analysis
Films were analyzed for all subjects who had a baseline and a 2-year mammogram where the positions of both breasts in both mammograms were comparable. For subgroup analyses, continuous demographic variables (age, years since menopause, and body mass index) and baseline density were categorized into tertiles; other subgroup variables included previous HRT use, use of alcohol at entry, and smoking at entry. Subgroup analyses were performed with the use of analysis of variance (ANOVA). Subject demographic variables were analyzed for potential treatment-group differences with the use of a one-way ANOVA for continuous variables and a chi-square test for categorical variables. All statistical tests were two-sided.
The endpoint of this study, change in breast density from baseline to 2 years, was analyzed with the use of ANOVA, with treatment and country as fixed effects in the model. Mammographic density is presented as percent density, calculated as described previously, for both breasts combined. This density definition is a weighted average of the left and right breast densities.
Since breast densities measured by this method have not been described previously, a cutoff value for clinically relevant endpoints had not been determined. We, therefore, chose to use the SD of endpoints in the placebo group in this study to define a potentially clinically relevant endpoint. Any change in breast density greater than the mean change in the placebo group plus 1 SD was considered to be potentially clinically relevant; likewise, any decrease greater than the mean placebo change minus 1 SD was considered to be potentially clinically relevant. This definition of clinical relevance was made before the data had been analyzed and is clearly not the only one that could have been selected. However, this cutoff seemed statistically reasonable, as did the use of the placebo group as an internal reference range.
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RESULTS |
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DISCUSSION |
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It has been reported previously that treatment with raloxifene, in addition to its effects on bone density, results in a 76% reduction in the incidence of invasive breast cancer in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis by 40 months of therapy (26,27). This is consistent with the estrogen-antagonist effect of raloxifene in the breast, as is the lack of an effect of raloxifene on breast density observed in the current study. Because raloxifene does not increase breast density, such treatment should also not impede the detection of new breast cancer by mammography.
The absolute mean breast densities measured in this trial were smaller than those observed in another study (22) with similar study populations, a difference that is due, in part, to the various methods used for measuring breast density. In the most commonly used method, radiologists visually inspect mammograms and assign them to one of four subjective categories of breast density (6,8,18,31). Other methods estimate either the percentage of parenchymal tissue present (32) or the changes in density by comparing mammograms taken at different times (19,22,33). All of these methods are visual, subjective, and qualitative. In contrast, quantitative methods that exclude interspersed fat from the analysis of glandular tissue by manual segmentation (6,8,31) or interactive computer analysis (4,34), as was done in this study, measure only glandular tissue and result in overall lower breast density values.
In the recently published PEPI trial (22), 8% of the patients on ERT and 20%24% of those on HRT (estrogen plus progesterone) had increases in breast density at 12 months. These women had to have at least a "moderate" change in breast density for a change to be recognized in the four-category system used to analyze data in that study. Compared with the women in our trial, PEPI trial participants were about 6 years older, half as likely to have ever used HRT, and were not required to have undergone hysterectomy. Compared with the ERT group in the PEPI trial, a higher percentage (30.6%) of the ERT group in our trial demonstrated a potentially clinically relevant change. This difference is most likely due to the increased sensitivity of the method employed in our study. Despite the differences in density evaluation methods and populations, statistically significantly more patients receiving ERT in both studies developed increased breast density compared with those receiving placebo. The effects of other SERMs, such as tamoxifen or toremifene, on breast density have not been reported in healthy postmenopausal women without breast cancer.
As new therapies, such as SERMs, become available, it is desirable to understand whether specific characteristics predict enhanced response to therapy. For example, some subgroups of women (e.g., those with a higher percentage of glandular tissue) might be more responsive to estrogen or raloxifene, since both therapies work through estrogen receptors that are present in glandular tissue. However, while this study was not sufficiently powered to detect such differences, a trend in that direction was observed.
This study has two primary limitations. First, because this trial used ERT instead of HRT (estrogen plus progesterone), we could not discern the effects of progestin on breast density separately from the effects of estrogen. In other trials (20,22), estrogen plus progestin (given cyclically or in combination) increased breast density beyond the increase observed for estrogen alone. Second, although the digitizing method used here is similar to one published previously (3), to our knowledge, this is the first clinical trial application of this particular method. We are, therefore, unable to directly compare our results with the results of other studies.
Thus, in a study of healthy postmenopausal women enrolled in an international osteoporosis prevention trial, raloxifene given at a dose of 60 mg/day or 150 mg/day did not increase breast density at 2 years. These findings suggest that raloxifene therapy should not impair detection of new breast cancer by mammography. The lack of apparent mammary parenchymal stimulation by raloxifene clearly distinguishes its effects on breast tissue from those of conjugated estrogens, which reproducibly increase breast density. These different effects on breast density may be of benefit in evaluating screening mammograms for women who are receiving raloxifene or HRT to prevent or treat osteoporosis.
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APPENDIX |
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NOTES |
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We thank Joan E. Glusman, M.D., for study design; Teri Scott, M.S.N., for study coordination and data management; Jeffrey Collmann, Ph.D., and Cerone Williams, R.N., for study execution and coordination; and Michele Y. Hill for editorial assistance.
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Manuscript received June 5, 2000; revised October 25, 2000; accepted October 30, 2000.
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