Research themes and projects at the Centre for Womens Health, Gender and Society
Project title
Exposure to high dose estrogens in adolescence: Long term effects on mammographic breast density
Major research theme
Investigators
- Dr Alison Venn, Menzies School of Health Research, University of Tasmania
- Prof Anne Kavanagh, CWHGS, School of Population Health, The University of Melbourne
- A/Prof Dorota Gertig, MEGA Epidemiology, The University of Melbourne
- Ms Helen Jordan, Menzies School of Health Research, University of Tasmania
Funding
- National Health and Medical Research Council project grant, 2006-2007, $89,050
Summary
This project aims to increase our understanding of the influence of sex hormones in adolescence on breast cancer risk. It aims to test the hypothesis that exposure in adolescence to high doses of estrogen, with cyclic progesterone, has a long-term effect on mammographic breast density, a well established determinant of breast cancer risk.
Since the 1950s, large doses of estrogen have been used as a treatment to reduce the adult height of tall adolescent girls. A recently established Australian cohort study of the long-term health and psychosocial effects of this treatment provides a unique opportunity to examine the effects of adolescent exposure to high dose sex hormones on breast density. Recent results have shown long-term impaired fertility in treated tall girls, demonstrating the plausibility of lasting effects on developing reproductive tissues.
The proposed study population will include all women who participated in our previous follow-up of the cohort, who will be aged 40 years and over in 2006, and who stated that they would be interested in being involved in further research (98%). Participants included those who received estrogen treatment to reduce their growth (treated group) and those who were assessed but not treated (untreated group). For this next follow-up, women will be asked for their consent to allow the investigators to access any mammogram they have had in the last two years. If they have not had a mammogram performed in the last two years, they will be asked to have one at a convenient BreastScreen service and to provide consent for the investigators to access the film. Mammographic films obtained from BreastScreen will be scanned, and mammographic breast density measured using standard protocols, and compared between groups.