Women will soon be notified about their breast density after a mammogram. Here’s what that means
CNN
Starting this week, all mammography reports and result letters to patients in the United States will be required to include an assessment of a patient’s breast density.
Having dense breasts can put women at higher risk of breast cancer and make it more difficult to spot cancer on a mammogram, but many don’t realize it’s a significant risk. Starting this week, all mammography reports and result letters sent to patients in the United States will be required to include an assessment of breast density. The US Food and Drug Administration’s final rule requiring that mammography facilities notify patients about the density of their breasts goes into effect Tuesday. Breast density is a measurement of how much fibroglandular tissue there is in a woman’s breast versus fatty tissue. The more fibroglandular tissue, the denser the breast. About half of women older than 40 in the United States have dense breast tissue, said radiologist Dr. Kimberly Feigin, interim chief of the Breast Imaging Service and head of the Breast Imaging Quality Assurance at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. “We talk about breast density for two reasons. One is that breast density can make it more difficult to spot a cancer on a mammogram, because dense breast tissue – the glandular elements and connective tissue supporting elements – looks white on a mammogram and cancer also looks white on a mammogram,” Feigin said. In other words, dense breast tissue can hide cancer on a mammogram since the tissue appears white on a mammogram, in the same way lumps and tumors appear.
The first person to have a severe case of H5N1 bird flu in the United States has died, according to the Louisiana Department of Health.
US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy issued an advisory Friday warning Americans that alcohol consumption can increase their cancer risk and called for an updated health warning label on alcoholic beverages.
Who will make the cut to be in South Korea’s newest K-pop group? CNN follows seven hopefuls during the final week of training at K-pop company, MZMC.
In the summer of 1983, Katy Golden’s mom stocked their kitchen with popsicles and bubble gum. Golden was 5 years old and about to have her tonsils removed to help with some ear issues she’d been struggling with since she was an infant.
From Nicole Kidman’s erotic thriller “Babygirl,” to a book of sexual fantasies edited by Gillian Anderson, this was the year the female sex drive took the wheel in popular culture.
For people whose new year resolution is to quit smoking, doing so can add years to your life expectancy.
Charles Schulz’s TV special survived the skepticism of network executives to become a holiday classic.
First come the horseshoe crabs. Hoisting their round, tank-like shells, they trundle out of the Delaware Bay under the first full moon in May to mate and lay their eggs.