Trial Information

Transillumination for Breast Cancer Risk Assessment

In a previous cross sectional study in a group of women without breast cancer and with
varying degrees of parenchymal density patterns, a strong association was demonstrated
between Transillumination Breast Spectroscopy (TIBS) and x-ray derived mammographic density.
From this, we expect that TIBS should also provide a comparable odds ratio (4-6) as
mammographic density for breast cancer risk shown in other independent epidemiological
studies. It is possible that TIBS may provide complementary information and a higher odds
ratio if compared to the incidence of breast cancer. In contrast to mammography derived
parenchymal density pattern, no historical TIBS data is available for a retrospective
analysis and hence a cross sectional study within a group of screened women is proposed. We
hypothesize that TIBS provides physical information about the breast tissue which can be
used to construct a breast cancer risk predictor with an odd ratio > 6.