Health Tips

Breast Density May Determine Cancer Risk During October, Breast Cancer Awareness Month, an article in an online guide to women’s health released the some of the newest research findings. An issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute had contained a report information relating to the assessment of a woman’s risk for getting breast cancer.

That widely-read publication had published findings that pointed to breast density as a risk factor that should cancer play a part in the determination of a woman’s risk for breast cancer. By the same token, the techniques that could facilitate a determination of a woman’s risk for breast cancer remained an elusive ideal. The existing equipment used to examine women’s breasts was not designed to measure breast density.

If women banned together and demanded a way to be screened for their breast density, then the makers of existing breast imaging machines would feel motivated to offer equipment that can measure breast density. Such equipment would have the ability to detect the ductal and connecting tissues in a woman’s breasts. Current equipment, which creates an opaque image for the presence of ductal or connecting tissue would become outdated.

Researchers have long known that some breast cancers started in the breast duct. Obviously any increase in t the number or density of the ducts would increase a woman’s chances for getting breast cancer. That fact points to the need for machines that can measure breast density. That fact should guide development of equipment that can detect early cancer signs in the 1 in 8 women who will get breast cancer.

Dr. Ganz has already indicated that the measurement of breast density should take place prior to any counseling for women who know have a family medical history that includes breast cancer.