Dense breasts are at higher risk of cancer but the dense tissue makes cancer hard to spot. What to do?

Some argue women should be told about their breast density when they have a mammogram. Others disagree.

New research about what might help reduce breast density and therefore cancer risk, has raised the debate once more.

Wendy Ingman discusses her latest research on the cause of increased breast density and cancer risk with Dr Norman Swan on the ABC Health Report on Radio National.

World-leading Victorian cancer researchers have been given a $7 million funding package to further discoveries that could potentially save lives. Over a dozen of the state’s most elite cancer researchers will share in the state government grants to help develop cures and preventive treatments for various forms of life-threatening cancers.

Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre researcher and INFORMD member Dr Kara Britt will use the funding to investigate breast cancer therapies based on a protein found in healthy breasts, and more so in women who have had a pregnancy. Pregnancy in young women is known to reduce a woman’s lifetime risk of breast cancer but little is understood about why this is. Through understanding the biological pathways that cause pregnancy to protect women against breast cancer, Dr Britt hopes to develop new therapies against breast cancer and maybe even prevent breast cancer from occurring in the first place, "This funding is critically important for us to progress our research trying to find new breast cancer treatments and potential preventatives." she says.

Dr Kara Britt will study novel biological pathways that can prevent and treat breast cancer.