Extremely dense breast tissue

Dense breast tissue refers to the appearance of breast tissue on a mammogram. When viewed on a mammogram, women with dense breasts have more dense tissue than fatty tissue. Your breast tissue may be called dense if you have a lot of fibrous or glandular tissue and not much fat in the breasts.

Having dense breast tissue is common. Some women have more dense breast tissue than others.

For most women, breasts become less dense with age. But in some women, there’s little change. Extremely dense breast tissue is a breast cancer risk factor.

Nimmi Kapoor explains why women with it are at higher risk and what they can do. You may not know you have dense breast tissue until an X-ray reveals it. The four breast density categories are shown in this image.

Research has shown that women with dense breasts can be times more likely to develop breast cancer.

In general, women with breasts that are classified as heterogeneously dense or extremely dense are considered to have dense breasts. Learn more about breast density. Women over age are about evenly split between having dense and non- dense breasts, with most falling into one of the middle two. As others have have sai dense tissue makes screening mammograms much less effective and in and of itself is considered a risk factor for breast cancer.

Among women with dense breasts, the risk of developing an interval cancer was greatest in those with extremely dense breasts (at least percent of breast tissue is dense ) and a 5-year risk of 1. Data are needed on the use of supplemental magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to. Please browse the website further to learn about dense breast tissue , use the available resources, read and share stories and consider making a donation to help expose this BEST-KEPT SECRET about the limitations of mammography alone to detect cancer in women with dense breast tissues. Some people have more fibrous than fatty tissue in the breasts. This can increase their risk of breast cancer and make it harder to diagnose.

The majority of women (out of 10) are classified in one of the two middle categories. Only a small fraction of women have either extremely dense breasts, or breasts that are almost entirely fat. The breast tissue is extremely dense. This may lower the sensitivity of mammography ( glandular) a. By looking at your mammogram or the measure of breast density, your health care provider may conclude you have dense breasts.

How does dense breast tissue look on a mammogram?

These mammogram images show a range of breast density. The radiologist decides which of the types best describes how dense your breasts are. Why is breast density important? Dense tissue appears white on a mammogram.

Breasts are almost all fatty tissue. In women with heterogeneously dense or extremely dense breasts, digital mammography has been shown to be more effective compared with film mammography for breast cancer screening (2). This finding is in line with other studies that have come to the same conclusion. Although dense breasts are a known.

Here are two patients with “extremely dense” breasts. More than of their tissue is dense, severely limiting the ability of mammography to find an early cancer. Women with breasts that are this dense also have a 4-5x greater risk of developing breast cancer compared to women with fatty (non-dense) breasts. Therefore, breast density is not a major cancer risk factor. The sensitivity of mammography is reduced as background breast tissue density increases.

When mammography is the only screening test performe sensitivity decreases by to for women with dense breasts. Have a screening mammogram annually, and consider tomosynthesis as well as your mammogram. If you have dense breasts combined with other risk factors for breast cancer, consider going to a high risk clinic for your care. If you have extremely dense breast tissue , consider whole- breast ultrasound as an additional screening. Are You Dense Advocacy, Inc has been working on the proposed rule changes for over ten years.

Detecting breast cancer in dense breasts. However, dense breast tissue can make it harder to find cancer on a mammogram and may also be associated with an increased risk of breast cancer.