A NEED TO STANDARDIZE SCREENING WITH DENSE BREAST SCANNING

 

RUNNING THE TORCH OF A DENSE BREAST CANCER CHAMPION

Dr. Noelle Cutter drives the spirit of Dr. Nancy Cappello's mission for early cancer detection for women with dense breasts alongside Dr. Robert Bard's dense breast screening pilot program (8/27-29) - and the global pursuit to expand current screening standards.

What Does It Mean to Have Dense Breasts?

Source: CDC.gov

A mammogram shows how dense your breasts are. When you get the results of your mammogram, you may also be told if your breasts have low or high density. Women with dense breasts have a higher risk of getting breast cancer.

PARTS OF THE BREAST

A woman’s breast has three kinds of tissue: FIBROUS TISSUE holds the breast tissue in place.  GLANDULAR TISSUE is the part of the breast that makes milk, called the lobes, and the tubes that carry milk to the nipple, called ducts. Together, fibrous and glandular tissue are called fibroglandular tissue.  FATTY TISSUE fills the space between the fibrous tissue, lobes, and ducts. It gives the breasts their size and shape.

BREAST CANCER RISK: Women with dense breasts have a higher chance of getting breast cancer. The more dense your breasts are, the higher your risk. Scientists don’t know for sure why this is true. Breast cancer patients who have dense breasts are not more likely to die from breast cancer than patients with non-dense (fatty) breasts.

7/8/2021- A wave of recognized medical sites, journals and reports  are now indicating that dense breast tissue increases the risk of developing breast cancer and often masks a tumor from being seen on the mammogram since dense tissue is white and cancerous tissue is also white. Mammograms are the standard screening test for breast cancer, however, in the 21st Century, ultrasound non invasive imaging is the preferred exam for dense “lumpy” mammary disease.   

The 1st World Conference of Breast Ultrasound in Philadelphia (1979) recognized ultrasound superiority in dense breast diagnostics but the density level was never quantified until recently. Mammography assessment of breast density is graded into four categories. Mammographers readily admit that these levels are subjective at best and technical factors such as mammary tissue compression and x-ray voltage/amperage dramatically influence the darkness or whiteness of the image.

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URGENCY IN THE EVOLUTION OF TECHNOLOGY & IMAGING STRATEGIES FOR DENSE BREASTS

Written by: Dr. Robert L. Bard

Decades since the advent of breast scanning technology, innovations in non-invasive diagnostic imaging provide new options in the field of early detection. These technologies directly align with breast density screening (and are part of the Bard Breast Density Diagnostic Program) include:

• Doppler blood flow

• Contrast enhanced ultrasound vascularity 

• 3D Vessel Density Histogram 

• 4D Volumetric Density Histogram

• Strain and shear wave tissue Elastography 

• 3T MRI 

• Optical Computed Tomography (OCT) for nipple lesions

• Reflectance Confocal Microscopy (RCM)  for dermal invasion

• Hybrid Mammo Imaging Fusion

• Thermo-sensor

• Trans Illumination

• Near Infrared Specroscopy

Hybrid imaging refers to combining diagnostic modalities to assess disease and monitor therapy. A useful combination of options is the tumor vessel flow density to assess aggression and treatment progress. Similarly, tissue elastography is useful for border detection of malignant masses.

FOR COMPLETE DETAILS ON THIS PROGRAM, VISIT: http://breastcancernyc.com/