medical
When I was diagnosed in 2004 with advanced-stage 3c breast cancer( a quarter size invasive tumor with 13 metastasized lymph nodes) within weeks of a normal mammogram, I was puzzled. I questioned my physicians about how my cancer could be so advanced in light of my decade of faithful yearly screenings and“ normal” mammography reports. This was the first time I was informed that my“ dense breast tissue” limited the ability of my mammograms to find my cancer.
What is dense breast tissue?
Dense breast tissue consists of connective and glandular tissue which appears white on a mammogram. Cancer also appears white on a mammogram – thus there is no contrast to“ see” the cancer. As a woman’ s density increases, the sensitivity of the mammogram decreases. Fatty breast tissue appears dark on a mammogram; thus cancer can be readily viewed and mammography is very effective. Radiologists use a 4 point scale( BIRADS) from fatty to dense to assess a woman’ s breast tissue composition after viewing a woman’ s mammogram. The medical community considers a BIRADS 3 or 4 as being dense. This density assessment is usually communicated to a woman’ s referring doctor in a report that is SELDOM shared with her. Most patient reports of the results of a mammogram‘ The Happy Gram’ do not contain information about a woman’ s breast tissue composition.
Shocked that my dense breast tissue got in the way of an early diagnosis,( after all, isn’ t
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THE PINK PAPER Summer 2013