"Constitutive" skin pigmentation: a marker of breast cancer risk?

There is much evidence to support a link between oestrogen and breast cancer. Both adult and foetal oestrogen may have this predisposing effect, and between-individual and between-population differences in oestrogen may account for much of the variation in risk for breast cancer. Here we suggest that "constitutive" skin colour in women is a marker for prenatal and adult oestrogen levels such that within ethnic groups light-skinned women have experienced higher in utero and adult oestrogen than dark-skinned women. Scores for 'constitutive' skin pigment may therefore be predictive of risk for breast cancer and low scores could be used to identify individuals at high risk.