Women with dense breast tissue face a higher risk of developing breast cancer and may benefit from screening with digital, rather than film, mammography. Yet most aren’t aware of the association between dense tissue and disease risk.
Women with dense breasts should discuss their cancer risk and screening options with their doctors.
While women with very dense breasts are four to five times more likely to develop the disease than their counterparts without dense tissue, only one of every five people worldwide recalled learning anything about dense breast tissue.
What is even more troubling is that fewer than half of women questioned could name six typical symptoms of breast cancer. In addition to lumps, those symptoms can include nipple discharge or rash, as well as changes in breast size, shape or appearance.
Two of my symptoms were excessive itchiness on my right breast, which at the time I attributed to dry skin, and incredible fatigue. My breast tissue is not dense which is why my tumor was located easily.
Forty percent of women have dense breast tissue, which is composed more of connective tissue than of fat. Research is being done to determine whether imaging with ultrasound, MRI or tomosynthesis - which generates three-dimensional images - might increase the effectiveness of breast cancer screening for those women.
As a means of ensuring that women are informed so that they can initiate discussions with their health care providers, 19 American states have passed legislation requiring that women be notified if a mammogram shows they have dense breast tissue, and 12 states have such legislation pending.
All women with dense breast tissue should be notified. Three-dimensional digital screenings can detect tumors that may otherwise be missed by traditional screenings.
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