Is There a Relationship Between Bone Mineral Density, Mammographic Breast Density and Serum Estrogen Concentration Level? Study on Malaysian Women

Estrogen is known to affect both mammographic breast density and bone mineral density. Breast density is a well-known risk factor of breast cancer determined by the physiological hormonal changes. Studies shown inconclusive relationship of breast density and bone mineral density as breast cancer risk factors. This study aimed to determine the relationship of bone mineral density; mammographic breast density and serum estrogen concentration level in Malaysian women. A cross sectional study on 108 women aged above 40 years who underwent bone scan and mammography screening was conducted at the General Hospital Kuala Lumpur from 2016 to 2017. Subjects were chosen using convenient sampling technique. With women commenced cancer treatment and women who had mastectomy done being excluded from the study. An independent-t and chi-square statistical test were used to analyze the continuous and categorical data whilst binary logistic regression was used to determine the mentioned relationship. A total of 75.5% of the respondents had a normal bone mineral density in the hip and 76.9% in the spine. Abnormality in bone mineral density were recorded to be higher in postmenopausal women with the bone mineral density in spine (23.2%) region were slightly higher compared to the hip (18.5%). There was no statistical significant relationship between mammographic breast density and serum concentration level with bone mineral density in hip and spine.