California Legislature Declares August 8th As Are You Dense Day At The Capitol

Senate Bill 1538, introduced by Senator Joe Simitian is quite simple. It would require that women be informed if they have dense breast tissue; that they be told it can obscure abnormalities on a mammogram; and that they may wish to discuss with their doctor the potential value of additional screening.

Senator Simitian remarked in a recent article about Are You Dense Day, "The woman who inspired me to take up this issue in the Legislature learned the hard way about the limits of mammography for women with dense breast tissue. Amy Colton, a nurse in my district, was diligent about having regular mammograms, which had come back with reassuring reports. She was floored when she was subsequently diagnosed with advanced breast cancer.

Only in the midst of her treatment -- 16 rounds of chemotherapy, 6 weeks of daily radiation and five surgeries – did she learn from her own research that she had dense breast tissue, which made it difficult to detect the cancer.

She was even more chagrined to find out that radiologists and doctors know their patients’ breast density, because federal standards for mammograms require a breast density rating as part of the report the radiologist sends to the doctor. Yet too few doctors discuss breast density with their patients."

Dr. Nancy M. Cappello of Connecticut and President and Founder of Are You Dense Inc. and Are You Dense Advocacy, Inc. joined Amy Colton on the Senate Floor to accept a Senate Resolution designating August 8, 2012 as Are You Dense Day.

The message of “Are You Dense? Day” is: get a mammogram, find out your breast density; ask your doctor what breast cancer screening plan is best for you.

"All patients should be empowered to be effective advocates for their own health. For women, one of the most important facts to know is “Are you dense?” said Senator Joe Simitian.

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Dr. Nancy Cappello, Amy Colton and Senator Joe Simitian discuss the importance of a woman knowing her breast density at a taping of a program at the State Capitol.

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  • Are You Dense? Fact #1:

    Breast density is one of the strongest predictors of the failure of mammography screening to detect cancer.

     
  • Are You Dense? Fact #2:

    Two-thirds of pre-menopausal women and 40% of post-menopausal women have dense breast tissue. 

     
  • Are You Dense? Fact #3:

    Adding more sensitive tests to mammography significantly increase detection of invasive cancers that are small and node negative.

     
  • Are You Dense? Fact #4:

    American College of Radiology describes women with "Dense Breast Tissue" as having a higher than average risk of Breast Cancer.

     
  • Are You Dense? Fact #5:

    While a mammogram detects 98% of cancers in women with fatty breasts, it finds only 48% in women with dense breasts.

     
  • Are You Dense? Fact #6:

    A woman at average risk and a woman at high risk have an EQUAL chance of having their cancer masked by mammogram.

     
  • Are You Dense? Fact #7:

    Women with dense breasts who had breast cancer have a four times higher risk of recurrence than women with less-dense breasts.

     
  • Are You Dense? Fact #8:

    A substantial proportion of Breast Cancer can be attributed to high breast density alone.

     
  • Are You Dense? Fact #9:

    Cancer turns up five times more often in women with extremely dense breasts than those with the most fatty tissue.

     
  • Are You Dense? Fact #10

    There are too many women who are unaware of their breast density, believe their “Happy Gram” when it reports no significant findings and are at risk of receiving a later stage cancer diagnosis.

     
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