A study by researchers at the University of Arizona in Tucson found that hip bone mineral density may be a clue in predicting breast cancer after menopause no matter of the woman’s Gail risk model. More exactly, women with high hip bone mineral density at the study’s beginning were more likely to develop breast cancer during the study.

On the other hand, if bone mineral density lowers too much, that brings different health risks such as osteoporosis and fractures.

The Gail risk model estimates a woman’s chances of developing breast cancer based on her current age, her age when she first menstruated, her age when she first gave birth, family history of breast cancer, past biopsies and race.

The researchers believe that adding bone mineral density tests to the other risks included in the Gail risk model could significantly improve doctors’ ability to predict breast cancer risk in older women.

The study focused on 9,941 postmenopausal women who took part in the Women’s Health Initiate, a long-term women’s health study. The women were 63 years old on average at the start of the study and got a check-up that included a hip bone mineral density scan using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA).

A total of 327 women developed breast cancer over an average of 8.43 years.

The researchers reported that women with a high Gail risk score had a 35 percent increased risk for developing breast cancer compared to women with a low Gail risk score. However, they also found a 25 percent increase in breast cancer risk with each unit increase in hip BMD.

“Future studies should investigate whether incorporating BMD and Gail score with other risk factors, such as breast density, can further improve the identification of women at high risk for developing breast cancer,” Dr. Zhao Chen from the University of Arizona in Tucson and colleagues wrote in the study published in the journal Cancer.

One explanation of these findings could be that women with high bone density often are overweight or obese, a condition that boosts their chances of developing breast cancer, according to Dr. Jay Brooks, chairman of hematology/oncology at Ochsner Health System in Baton Rouge, La.

“This is more information that shows a link in my opinion, between increasing weight, obesity and the development of breast cancer,” he said.

High bone density is also a sign of higher levels of estrogen, which increases both bone mass and breast cancer risk. Many breast cancers are estrogen-sensitive.

On a national level, breast cancer represents the second leading cause of cancer death for women. The first cause if lung cancer. The American Cancer Society presented some rather troubling statistics about this year’s health expectations: apparently, more than 180,000 women in the U.S. will be diagnosed with cancer this year and close to 40,000 will die from it.