CLEVELAND — As one of many living in the United States with dense breasts, Kimberly Johnson says she has to go through more additional breast cancer screening steps than the average person since doctors say her density makes it more challenging to detect breast cancer with a regular mammogram.
“Dense breasts means that you have more of the fiber, glandular tissue versus the fatty breast tissue, and the fiber glandular tissue seen on mammogram is white and breast cancer is white,” said University Hospitals Division Chief of Breast Imaging, Holly Marshall.
“Because you have the dense breast is going to be a lot more,” said Johnson.
But as a two-time breast cancer survivor, “I would tell anyone to do everything they tell you to do, because it could save your life and it saved my life, and so I'm just thankful,” said Johnson.
That’s why Johnson says she supports a new nationwide push from the FDA to require mammogram facilities to let patients know if they have dense breast tissue so they can consult with a doctor if they need additional screening.
“I absolutely believe it is necessary, and I'm glad that they are doing it. It's definitely a step in the right direction,” said Johnson.
Marshall says only 38 states require some sort of reporting about breast density and Ohio has been one of them since 2015.
Johnson says she’s benefitted from this process, and now she wants to use her story to advocate for other women across the country with dense breasts.
“It's very important to make sure if they tell you have too dense breasts, and that you need some further other type of mammogram or ultrasound even or even an MRI to do it,” said Johnson.
“With these new standards in place, this notification and discussion about breast density will be across the country,” said Marshall.
These rules are set to be implemented in the next 18 months.
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