Video: From Population Based screening to Personalized Breast Care by Nancy Cappello

https://www.womenshealthmag.com

Nancy Cappello, Ph.D., executive director and founder of Are You Dense Inc. and Are You Dense Advocacy, explains how a personalized breast screening program can improve cancer detection for women with dense breasts at the 2017 AHRA annual meeting in Anaheim.

Quick facts about breast cancer in dense breast and the screening dilemma associated with it.

What is meant by “being dense”? Breast density does not correlate with physically palpated firmness of breast, it is a radiologic finding and cannot be predicted without obtaining a mammogram. 

Nearly 40% of women have dense breast. In fact, Simple screening mammography will only detect 30% cancer in dense breasts and 80% in non-dense breasts. According to the American Cancer Society, having heterogeneously or extremely dense breast tissue puts you at risk of breast cancer that is equivalent having one first-degree relative with breast cancer. (2.1 to 4 times the normal risk)

The current options available in addition to screening mammography are Tomosynthesis or 3D mammography, Ultrasound, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Molecular Breast Imaging (MBI) or Breast Specific Gamma Imaging (BSGI) and Contrast Enhanced Spectral Mammography (CESM)

Nancy M. Cappello, Ph.D. has founded Are You Dense, Inc., and Are You Dense Advocacy, Inc., to educate women and general public about the challenges women with dense breast face regarding the screening tools for detecting early breast cancer.