Pitt radiology professor offers insight on new FDA requirements, breast cancer early detection

PITTSBURGH — The FDA announced new national requirements that doctors must tell women if they have dense breasts, which is a major step forward when it comes to breast cancer early detection.

“We’ve known for a long time that having dense tissue, which looks white on a mammogram, can hide cancers... and it also is a risk factor for developing breast cancer as much as four times, said Dr. Wendie Berg.

Dr. Berg, a radiology professor at Pitt, and founder of Dense Breast Info spoke to Channel 11′s Cara Sapida about the new FDA requirements. She said 40% of women have dense breasts. Her website has images showing how cancer can be easily spotted in breasts that are not dense, in comparison to how difficult it is to spot when they’re dense.

“Many women who had been going faithfully for annual mammograms for years would find out three months later, after a normal mammogram, that they had a lump and sure enough it was cancer, and maybe an advanced cancer. And then that was the first time they’d learn about having dense breasts,” said Dr. Berg.

Mammograms will still be the standard of care for women who do not have dense breasts.

“There was a little note that said, ‘dense breast tissue’,” said Keri Demarco, a local breast cancer survivor. “That wasn’t a red flag for me. I didn’t really know what that meant, my mammogram was good, I didn’t give it a second thought.”

DiMarco was diagnosed with Stage 1 breast cancer after both a mammogram and ultrasound came back clear. It was her fourth clear mammogram and the doctor decided to biopsy a cyst just to be safe.

“Four clear mammograms all clear all with dense breast tissue and I never knew that trying to find a tumor in a mammogram with dense breast tissue is like trying to find a white dot in a snowstorm. It really doesn’t show up.”

Doctor Berg says MRIs are the most effective tool when it comes to dense breast cancer detection, with triple the number of cancers found. She hopes the new FDA regulation will translate to more early detection and more lives saved.

“No matter how much treatments get better, all of them work best when cancer is found early. Treatment is much less extensive, much less harmful, and often you can avoid chemo altogether if cancer is caught early.”

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