“The second reason that breast density is important is because having dense breast tissue raises a woman’s level of risk of developing breast cancer,” Feigin said. Breast cancer survivor JoAnn Pushkin, 64, has advocated for more than a decade that there be a national requirement for women to be notified of their breast density. Now I have lymphedema, and all because it was detected at that later stage,” said Pushkin, who has testified before the FDA about breast density and co-created the website DenseBreast-info.org, which features resources on breast density. The new FDA changes require facilities to provide patients with information about their breast density and include specific language in the mammogram result letter to explain how breast density can influence the accuracy of a mammogram. A study published in 2022 found that the breast cancer death rate dropped by 43% within three decades, from 1989 to 2020, translating to 460,000 fewer breast cancer deaths during that time.

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Persons: Kimberly Feigin, ” Feigin, JoAnn Pushkin, Pushkin, she’d, “, ” Pushkin, ‘, Pushkin’s mammogram, ”, wasn’t, Wendie Berg, Berg, ” Berg, it’s, Molly Guthrie, Susan G, Komen, ” Guthrie, we’ve, Dr, Sanjay Gupta Organizations: CNN, US Food, Breast Imaging Service, Assurance, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, District of Columbia, FDA, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Magee, Womens Hospital of UPMC, American Cancer Society, CNN Health Locations: United States