Ultrasound in the realm of breast cancer detection: should mammography be worried?

by Olga Deshchenko, DOTmed News Reporter | May 16, 2011

From the May 2011 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine

Marmarelis is also pursuing a clinical study on American soil with potential funding from the government, while exploring other public and private funding sources.

He is currently working on a proposal for the Breast Cancer Research Program administered by the Office of the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs within the Department of Defense.

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Breast density – a policy issue
The abundance of innovation in ultrasound technologies that strive to aid or challenge mammography is good news for advocates like Are You Dense.

Thanks to the nonprofit’s efforts, Connecticut was the first state to pass a bill requiring payers to cover whole breast ultrasound as a screening tool. And in 2009, Are You Dense was successful in advocating for the passage of another bill in that state, requiring physicians to inform women of their breast density when they receive a mammography report.

Through a grassroots effort, advocates are working on similar bills in four other states – Florida, New York, Texas and California, says Cappello. The group is also pushing for a national bill, which is meeting some resistance from the American College of Radiology’s leadership.

Cappello says that after a woman gets a mammogram, the report she receives is, for the most part, different from the one a referring physician gets from the radiologist, which contains more information about breast density. ACR believes that “all women need to do is ask for the report,” she says.

“But what we know through a survey is that only one in 10 women find out about breast density from their physician and 95 percent of women do not know their breast density, even though it’s a risk factor,” says Cappello. “The average woman has no idea what breast density is.”

Cappello remains optimistic about the bill’s prospects and that radiologists and patients will agree on the legislation’s common language. The nonprofit continues to expand its breast density awareness campaign into the national arena, and women are taking notice.

“As women find out about this, they are outraged that they were never told about their own body, that they have a health hazard that has been kept from them,” Cappello says.

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