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Duke University
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VOL. 25, NO. 34
AUG. 25, 1978
DURHAM, N.C.
Duke study shows
X-ray Images hold clue to breast cancer
By William Erwin
Two X-ray pictures of each breast can
give women a clue to their future breast
cancer risk, according to a new study by
Comprehensive Cancer Center
researchers.
High-risk women have breasts that
look unusually dense on the X-rays.
These women are seven times as hkely to
develop breast cancer as low-risk women,
whose breasts look mostly clear on the X-
rays, the researchers estimate.
LOOKING CLOSELY—Dr. Robert McLelland examines a mammogram made at the Breast Cancer
Demonstration Project. A recent study has shown that these X-ray pictures can be used to predict
future breast cancer risk. (Photo ty William Erwin)
*
Small stones may fill gaps
in history of ancient civilization
By Beverly Welter
Duke News Service
Intricately carved, thumbnail-sized
stones are unlocking some of the
mysteries of the Bronze Age civilization
in Greece for a Duke scholar.
For several years Dr. John G. Younger,
assistant professor of classical studies,
has been studying the stones, called
sealstones.
Sealstones were used much like signet
rings by the Minoans in Crete and the
early Greeks who inhabited the mainland,
Mycenae.
More fancy than fact
Younger, who will chair the second
Marburg Symposium on Minoan-
Mycenaean Sealstones in Marburg,
Germany, Sept. 26-30, and will take part
in a Mycenaean seminar at London
University Oct. 11, said that more fancy
than fact surrounds the history of the
Minoans and Mycenaeans.
"Most of what we know is legend,
based on myths and the stories of Homer
and the Trojan wars," Younger said.
These early Greeks, who flourished
from about 3000 to 1200 B.C., had a form
of writing. Younger said, but added,
"They seemed to use it only for business
purposes. They left no history, no poetry,
no drama — only accounts — so many
loads of grain, so many bales of cloth and
so on."
Artists established
Through studies of the carvings on the
stones, depicting animals, people and cult
and religious scenes. Younger thinks that
much can be learned of a definitive nature
about these ancient people.
In fact, he has gone so far as to be able
(Continued on page 4)
Their findings appear in the June issue
of the American Journal of Roentgen
ology.
Sensitive risk factors
Dr. Robert McLelland, one of the
scientists, said the X-ray pictures "may be
as important or more important than
family history" in predicting breast
cancer risk. Daughters and sisters of
breast cancer patients have a risk for the
disease two to three times as high as other
women.
Another researcher, Dr. Lawrence
Myers, said of the pictures; "I think this is
the most sensitive risk factor we have,
with the exception of having had breast
cancer."
Reassurance
Besides identifying high-risk women
who need frequent breast examinations,
the pictures can also reassure women
who have a minimal risk for breast
cancer.
A woman shown to be low-risk for the
disease will remain low-risk for the rest of
her life, McLelland said. "A woman's risk
classification can get better, but it doesn't
get worse," he said.
McLelland is an associate professor of
radiology; Myers is an assistant professor
of community and family medicine.
Others conducting the study were Dr.
Sarah Hainline, a recent graduate of the
School of Medicine; Dr. Josephine
Newell, associate in community and
family medicine; Dr. Seymour
Grufferman, assistant professor of
community and family medicine and
pediatrics; and Dr. William W.
Shingleton, professor of surgery and
director of the Comprehensive Cancer
Center.
Technique used since 1930s
The X-ray pictures are called
mammograms. They are made by X-
raying each breast from the top and from
the side, a technique known as
mammography. Doctors have used
mammography since the mid-1930s as an
aid in diagnosing breast cancer.
Lumps as small as a pea often show up
on mammograms before a woman or her
physician can feel them. The pictures also
can disclose other possible signs of cancer,
such as flecks of calcium in the breasts.
In the study, the researchers gathered
mammograms from the files of 171 breast
cancer patients. Then they chose an equal
number of mammograms from files of
women with no breast disease symptoms,
matched with the patients by age and
race.
Next, the scientists mixed all the
mammograms together randomly. There
was no way to tell which belonged to a
cancer patient and which to a woman
without the disease.
Grouped into risk categories
McLelland then grouped the
mammograms into four risk categories
first defined in 1976 by Dr. John N. Wolfe,
chief of the Department of Radiology at
Hutzel Hospital in Detroit.
Into the highest-risk group, labeled
"DY," went mammogra ns showing
(Continued on 3)
1
THUMBNAIL SKETCH—This thumbnail-sized sealstone from Crete dates back to 1450 B.C. A
Duke scholar is studying stones such as this one to learn more about ancient Greek civilization.