Researchers have found that women whose breast density was 75 per cent or more were 4.7 times more likely to develop cancer than those with density under 10 per cent. Women with dense breasts were 18 times more likely to find a cancerous tumour within 12 months of a negative mammogram. This underscores that cancer is actually hardest to detect in women with the highest risk, a double-whammy that will likely result in a serious rethinking of screening.
Pardon my ignorance but by ‘dense breasts’, do they mean … er … ‘big breasts’? Well, apparently not:
On a mammogram, the gland tissue in the breast looks "dense." This means that it's thick or hard to see through. Some women have denser breasts than others. Dense breasts have more glandular and connective tissue and less fat tissue. Younger women tend to have denser breasts than older women. And thinner women tend to have denser breasts than heavier women.
Seems to me women have a lot to contend with in life.
If it was that simple, why don't youn women have compulsory breast scans instead of only those over 50? Youngers women are totally ignored unless breast cancer it is hereditory. Fortunately, that's not the case in my family.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting news. What's the source?
ReplyDeleteAs you know James, I'm involved with a breast cancer charity. There's nothing about this on their site.
"Women have a lot to contend with."
ReplyDeleteYou're telling me. Try having your precious bits stuck between two metal plates and squeezed until you squeak, and then tell me it wasn't a man who invented the machine.
Ellee, how can I answer that? Jeremy, one source is here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.physorg.com/news88279336.html
and the other links in the post help. Liz, I can only imagine.