Women With Atypical Hyperplasia at Higher Risk of Breast Cancer

Women with atypical hyperplasia (also known as atypia) are at higher risk of developing breast cancer in future than previously thought, according to a Mayo clinic study.

The study found that hundreds of women with these benign lesions indicate that their absolute risk of developing breast cancer grows by over 1 percent a year; and five years later, 7 percent of these women had developed the disease; while the number had increased to 13 percent after 10 years; and 30 percent women had breast cancer after 25 years. The Mato clinic findings have been validated by researchers at Vanderbilt University using biopsies from a separate cohort of women with atypia. Both studies revealed that at 25 years following biopsy, 25 to 30 percent of these women had developed breast cancer.