Dense breasts linked to return of breast cancer

[ElaineM]

http://www.caring4cancer.com/go/canc...109elin020.xml

[tricia keegan]

Elaine, I was told in my 20's I had dense breasts, I was relived at the time and thought no more of it as my children were young.
However I now wonder looking back if this had anything to do with my bc dx.
Interesting !

[v-ness]

interesting. i've been told for all my mammogram history that i have dense breasts. like a 20 yr old, they told me. i thought that sounded like a good thing! (especially since i'm 49). now i don't think it's so great since they have such a hard time seeing through them, and they scared the crap out of me calling me in twice and running a total of 7 x rays on my right breast after my left one was diagnosed.

i had to fight tooth and nail to get my right breast mammogrammed after i found the tumor in my left one. the surgeon and oncologist dismissed it as highly unlikely but every regular person i told, plus my shrink (an MD) thought it was lunacy not to make sure the right one was clean considering that the tumor had grown in 5 months time. finally my shrink wrote the mammo order because my obgyn was on vacation. when i finally met with her, her first words were "have they check your right breast yet?" HELLO! THANK YOU! would it have killed anyone to just write an order if only to give me piece of mind? thank god for a shrink who cares about my boobs.

valerie

[Laurel]

I also had dense breasts. When I was dx'd with BC they did magnified views of both breasts. What amazed me is that the diseased breast had extensive DCIS which showed very prominently on the magnified view. If magnified views had been performed with my annual mammos my BC would have been dx'd years earlier. I now tell all women who are told they have dense breasts to ask, no demand, magnified views with every mammo!

[Colleens_Husband]

This is Lee ranting so you can probably disregard everything I say without missing anything.[rant = on]

This morning I asked Colleen if she had dense breasts or not. Her answer wasn't too much of a surprise. She said she had no idea. Well since Colleen doesn't go around feeling other women's breasts for denseness, then her answer is completely understandable. So how are women supposed to know how dense comparatively their breasts are unless a medical professional tells them?

I certainly knew Colleen had extremely dense breasts, but then again examining breast density was an avocation of mine when I was between the ages of 17 and 25. Unfortunately, I had no idea about the link between breast density and breast cancer. If I had, then I would have badgered Colleen into getting yearly mammograms starting at age forty. Oh well, hindsight is 20/20.

I am wondering if political correctness run amok is preventing health care professionals from mentioning the breast density to a woman. I can certainly see a male GP getting sued for mentioning anything about a woman's breasts. Since breast density is an important or serious risk factor for breast cancer, then shouldn't every breast exam have some mention of breast density and its implication in terms of cancer risk? Since the new guidelines (I will rant about those in the future) are for reducing mammogram exams and self-exams, then how can any women make informed decisions about exceeding the new minimum guidelines if they have no clue of their own breast density, an important risk factor?

Sorry, I'm done ranting. It just is maddening that there is a completely preventable problem that isn't being discussed or dealt with and the new guidelines are only going to make things worse.

[rant = off]

[StephN]

Lee -
I have posted this before. I would get a letter from my clinic after having a mammogram. It would tell me the test was "normal", but go on to mention that I have "dense breasts and in women with dense breasts some 10% of cancers are missed with mammogram."

The letter ended by suggesting I do SELF CHECKS!

I mentioned this letter at my annual exam to my male GP, who encouraged me to perform self checks, which I did. No embarassment there.

Inflammatory breast cancer is also not detected by mammogram.

I like Laurel's mention of Magnified Views.

[Mary Jo]

Hahahahahahahaha @ Lee's "examing breast density between the ages of 17 - 25"

Just for the record...I, too, had dense breasts.

Mary Jo

[v-ness]

hi lee - dense breasts are very apparent right on the mammogram itself. they appear as very white and since tumors are also very white, they can evade discovery easier in dense tissue. fatty breasts, on the other hand, are easier to see through. your breasts (well, not yours, ours ) are supposed to go from dense like a 20-something's to fatty like a 40-something's. some of us managed to maintain the nubile denseness. lotta good it did us!

anyway, i seriously doubt political correctness plays any part in mentioning dense vs. fatty breasts. i've actually never even had a man do my mammogram, never seen a male mammo tech. the techs i've had never ever fail to mention the dense tissue and the male radiologist i sat with when i found the tumor in my chest had no qualms about telling me i had dense breasts.... and i live in the PC capital of the world.

i watched Family Guy last night and peter sued his doctor for sexually assaulting him because the doc did a prostate exam. i'm pretty sure no one in the real world would get anywhere with a 'dense breast' sexual harassment suit. actually, after i found my tumor i joked to the surgeon that i'd been felt up more in that month than i had during my whole high school career.

[Colleens_Husband]

Mary Jo:

I did it for science. I'm kinda like Albert Schweitzer in that regard.

Lee

[Faith in Him]

I had very dense breast also but I needed a doctor to tell me that. I had no idea.

[ElaineM]

A large amount of inflammatory breast cancer can show up on a mammogram. The outside of the breast glows on a mammogram when there is a large amount of inflammatory breast cancer present. I am not sure about a very small amount.