All you Need to Understand About Dense Breasts

Dense breast is a common problem found in women mostly. Dense breasts refer to the amount of dense breast the tissue on a mammogram, in relation to the fatty tissue. Breast density is important to recognize, because of the ability of mammography to detect breast cancer and also, it can increase the risk factor for the patient for developing future breast cancer. 

Based on the age and BMI distribution of US women, we estimated that 27.6 million women aged 40 to 74 years in the United States have heterogeneously or extremely dense breasts. A dense breast can lead to nothing but breast cancer. According to U.S. Breast Cancer Statistics. About 1 in 8 U.S. women (about 12%) will develop invasive breast cancer throughout her lifetime. In 2020, an estimated 276,480 new cases of invasive breast cancer are expected to be diagnosed in women in the U.S., along with 48,530 new cases of non-invasive breast cancer.

These stats clearly describes, how much big problem the dense breast has become. The dense breast can cause abnormalities in the breast, the cure for the abnormalities is to consult a dense breast doctor. Though, annual breast screening is recommended in women especially, from the age of 30 to 60, but here are the symptoms which may indicate you to consult the dense breast doctor: -

• Family history of cancer
• Heavy-weight
• Feeling swellings & irregular itching in the breast.
• Reaching at the age of 30. 

Your dense breast doctor will do several treatments with a motive to find out the abnormalities of the breast. These are the dense breast treatments, generally being done: -

Mammography

Breasts consist of two glands that are dense tissue and fatty tissues. On Mammogram the Dense breast tissue looks white, while the fatty tissue looks darker. Unfortunately, the cancerous tissue also looks white on the mammogram. If the Breast density is low, doctors will easily find breast cancer and cure it.

Breast MRI: Breast MRI is being used if the breast density is high. It uses magnets that give a detailed image of the breast and help the doctors finding out the location of the cancerous breast tissues.

Breast ultrasound: In this treatment, ultrasound waves are being used to have a detailed view of the breast which helps the doctor to check the dense breast tissues.

3D mammography: Also known as Tomosynthesis, this treatment is also known as modern mammography which is being used to have a 3D view of the breast tissue.

Dense breast law

On 28th March 2019, for the interest of the patients, the FDA announced its necessity for mammography facilities to include breast density information in reports sent to patients and their physicians. DB-I has analyzed the proposed language and submitted comments to the FDA during the designated “open for public comment” period. DB-I comments are available. This law has been created to safeguard the rights of patients and also to maintain transparency during the treatment procedure.

So, these are all you need to know about dense breast. I hope you got some important information from this article, take care!