Dense breast notifications are informative but hard to read and understand
https://www.facingourrisk.org/XRAY/dense-breast-notification
Full article: https://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2516699
Some states offer women dense breast notifications that are meant to explain that dense breasts are risk factors for breast cancer and can hide cancer on mammograms, and to identify appropriate supplemental screening options. But recent research found that this information is often not easy to read or understand, which questions the usefulness of the documents. (6/7/16)
Questions To Ask Your Health Care Provider
- What does having dense breasts mean for me?
- How can I lower my breast cancer risk?
- I have a dense breast notification and carry a mutation in a gene that increases cancer risk. How does this affect my screening options?
- What other screening methods can I use?
- I live in a state that does not provide a dense breast notification with my screening result. How do I know if I have dense breasts?
- Who do I contact if I do not understand what my Dense Breast Notification says?
Open Clinical Trials
The following are breast cancer screening or prevention studies enrolling people at high risk for breast cancer.
- NCT04067726: Denosumab and Mammographic Density in Premenopausal Women With Dense Breasts (TRIDENT). This study is looking at the drug denosumab to learn if it can reduce breast density in high-risk premenopausal women who have dense breasts.
- The Risk Factor Analysis of Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer In Women with BRCA1, BRCA2 or PALB2 Mutations. This study seeks to improve researchers’ understanding of how hormonal, reproductive and lifestyle factors may be associated with cancer in high-risk people.
- NCT02620852: Women Informed to Screen Depending on Measures of Risk (WISDOM) study. The goal of this study is to determine if breast cancer screening can be improved by personalizing each woman’s mammogram schedule, compared to the current one-size-fits-all annual approach.
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NCT04674306: Adjuvant Therapy With an Alpha-lactalbumin Vaccine in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer. This study is testing a new vaccine to lower the risk of breast cancer in high-risk women with an inherited mutation in BRCA1, BRCA2 or PALB2.
Additional risk-management clinical trials for people at high risk for breast cancer may be found here.
About FORCE
FORCE is a national nonprofit organization, established in 1999. Our mission is to improve the lives of individuals and families affected by adult hereditary cancers.