Mammographic parenchymal patterns: more controversy
M. Moskowitz · JAMA · 1982
The article by Tabár and Dean (p 185) on mammographic parenchymal patterns for breast cancer, emanating as it does from a population-based trial with a high percentage of attendance, represents a very important piece of work. The early reports of Wolfe indicating a group of mammographically identifiable patients at extremely high risk for development of breast cancer was initially greeted with enthusiasm. However, several subsequent investigators were either unable to duplicate Wolfe's work completely or, at best, only partially reproduce it at lower levels.1-6It appears from several of the reported studies, including our own,6that of Egan and Mosteller,1and the current study in particular, that the risk of the P2/DY pattern seems to be associated mostly with the prevalence screen. In subsequent or in incidence years of screening, as is shown in the current article, the magnitude of the apparent risk drops either to insignificant