Peachy the Magazine September October 2015 | Page 105

HEALTH + WELLNESS

used to agree that the detection rate
was lower because of the difficulty
in visualization of the cancers, it is
now believed that dense breast tissue
may actually have an increased risk of
developing breast cancer. This cancer
increase seems to be multi-factorial
and related to age, hormone levels,
pregnancy history, body habitus (a
person’s physique), family history of
breast cancer and hormone replacement use, yet women need to review
risk factors with their doctors to decide
if further testing may be needed.

Tools to Determine Breast
Cancer Risk and Plan for
Supplemental Testing
Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium
Calculator (BCSC) This tool uses age,
race, ethnicity, first-degree relatives with
breast cancer, history of breast biopsies
and breast density to calculate a fiveyear risk of developing breast cancer.
NCI Breast Cancer Risk Assessment

Risk factors can be calculated using
the BCSC tool or the BRCAT tool. (See
box.) Women with no associated risk
factors between the ages of 40 and 50
are considered to be at a normal risk.
They should continue annual mammograms as this will help detect an abnormality sooner. Less frequent screening
in this age group with dense breasts is
not recommended.

Tool (Gail Model or BRCAT) This tool

If additional risks are noted, supplemental testing may be necessary. There
is sufficient evidence that the additional testing may be useful in detecting breast cancer in dense breasts, but
these additional tests may be costly,
associated with risks and false positives and not associated with a reduction of dying from breast cancer.

mammogram and a calculated risk

uses more factors to evaluate breast
cancer risk and can calculate a 10-year
risk and an overall lifetime risk. These
factors include age, age of first menses,
number of first-degree relatives with
breast cancer, number of breast biopsies and age of first live birth of a child.
When a woman has heterogeneously
dense or extremely dense breasts on
of breast cancer of 1.67 percent or
greater as determined by the tools
above, additional testing should be
offered to her. When this plan is implemented, only 24 percent of women will
require this additional testing.

SEPTEMBER OCTOBER 2015

103