“When I as a breast imaging radiologist describe a patient as having dense breasts, what I mean is that her mammogram looks white to me,” Smetherman says. “Cancers will also look white, so looking for something white on a background of white is more difficult to identify.” Fatty tiss...
Dense breasts are harder to read on a mammogram. Tumors and masses show up as white spots just like dense tissue does. So it can be a challenge to tell the difference between what’s normal and what’s suspicious. It’s easier to miss a trouble spot or to falsely diagnosebreast cancer....
She says it's difficult to detect cancer in dense breasts because breast cancer and dense tissue appear white on a mammogram. "Our sensitivity or our ability to detect breast cancer goes down in women who have dense breast tissue for that reason," she explains. Dense breast tissue supplemental...
Only a mammogram can determine whether you have dense breasts. Neither your doctor nor you (during a self-exam) can tell from their size, shape, firmness, or other factors, such as your BMI or weight. What causes dense breast tissue?
D: Extremely dense. In this case, most of the tissue is dense and there is very little fatty tissue on the mammogram. Helen King/Getty Images What does dense breast tissue mean? Breasts havethree types of tissue: fibrous, glandular and fatty. Fibrous tissue holds your breast together, while...
Your Patient Got a Dense Breast Notification with Her Mammogram Report: What Are You Supposed to Do?Dickson-Witmer, DianeSabesan, ArvindDelaware Medical Journal
Doctors may also usemagnetic resonance imaging(MRI), ultrasound, or 3D mammography (called breast tomosynthesis) to further examine suspicious mammogram findings or inconclusive results, such as in cases of extremely dense breast tissue. An MRI uses a large magnet to create images of the breast. ...