MEMORANDUM FOR: Science Writers and Editors on the Journal Press List: Increased Breast Cancer Risk Related to Abnormal Cells Found in Nipple Aspirate Fluid

Extract

November 29, 2001 (EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE 4 P.M. EST December 4)

Extended follow-up of a previously published cohort of women shows that abnormal cells found in fluid collected by nipple aspiration are associated with an increased risk of breast cancer. This extended follow-up, along with independent confirmation of this observation in another group of women, is presented in the December 5 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Margaret Wrensch, Ph.D., and Nicholas Petrakis, M.D., at the University of California at San Francisco, and colleagues collected nipple aspirate fluids from women in the San Francisco Bay Area between 1972 and 1991. They classified the women according to the most severe abnormalities of cells found in the fluid specimens. Compared with women whose breasts gave no fluid, those whose fluid contained cells showing atypical hyperplasia were twice as likely to develop breast cancer.

More than half of the 7,673 women followed in the study were recruited from 1972 through 1980, and a second group was enrolled from 1981 to 1991. For each participant, up to three attempts were made to obtain breast fluid with a modified manual breast pump (a small plastic cup attached to a 10-mL syringe) placed over the nipple. While the woman gently compressed her breast with both hands, the plunger on the pump was pulled back to create suction on the nipple approximately equivalent to the pressure created by a nursing infant. Overall, about 60% of women produced fluid during these attempts.