In the United States, one woman is diagnosed with breast cancer roughly every three minutes, and a woman dies from this disease every thirteen minutes. In the state of Missouri alone, there were 4,242 cases of breast cancer last year.
Unfortunately, mammograms, which are meant to detect breast cancer, may not be a sufficient screening tool for the 40% of women in the US with dense breast tissue. To provide women with adequate information on breast density, I sponsored House Bill 1510, which was voted out of the General Laws Committee with unanimous approval on February 5.
HB 1510 requires certified mammography facilities to provide patients with a notice stating that if they have dense breast tissue and other risk factors for breast cancer, they may benefit from supplemental screening tests. The bill does not mandate additional screenings but informs patients and encourages open communication with their doctors.
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Breast tissue comes in two forms, fatty tissue, which is non-dense and appears as a dark spot on a mammogram, and connective tissue, which is dense and appears as a light spot on a mammogram. Since abnormalities and dense breast tissue both appear white on a mammogram, the mammogram may not always reveal the cancerous tissue. Conventional mammograms can detect 95% of cancers in fatty tissue but only 60% in dense breast tissue.
For women with dense breast tissue and an increased risk of breast cancer, additional screenings can be vital for early detection. Supplementing mammograms with an ultrasound can improve the detection rate dramatically for them, from 48% to 97%.
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Doctors report that they only speak to 9% of women over 40 about dense breast tissue. A 2010 survey found that 95% of women did not know if they had dense tissue, and 90% of women did not know that dense breast tissue increases the risk of developing breast cancer.
Patients deserve to be fully informed about their risks for cancer and their options for screenings. HB 1510 will give women the information they need to make the best decisions possible about their health.