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☆ Researchers Identify Possible New Risk for Breast Cancer
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Roni Caryn Rabin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Now, a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer could “be updated every time she gets a new mammogram.”Background: Breast Density MattersBreast density is now an acknowledged risk factor for breast cancer, albeit one of many. Dozens of states have started requiring mammography centers to notify women if they have dense breast tissue. In March, the Food and Drug Administration recommended that providers tell women about their breast density. But this is the first study to measure changes in density over time and to report a link to breast cancer. One next step may to be examine breast density over time in women taking medication to prevent breast cancer to see if the density decreases, Dr. Knudsen suggested.

☆ Most Major Insurers to Continue Preventive Care Services
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Stephanie Armour | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Preventive healthcare services include mammograms and cancer screenings. Photo: Heather Charles/Chicago Tribune/Getty ImagesThe majority of insurers in the U.S. don’t expect to drop no-cost preventive healthcare services as a lawsuit challenging the Affordable Care Act requirement works its way through the courts, according to a letter to lawmakers from the six trade groups representing the insurance industry. Their decision was outlined Wednesday in a letter by trade groups to House and Senate Democratic health committee leaders, who on April 12 wrote to a dozen of the nation’s largest health insurers and trade associations asking whether they intend to cover all recommended preventive services without cost-sharing until all appellate review in the case is concluded.

☆ New study suggests Black women should be screened earlier for breast cancer
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Jacqueline Howard | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +12 min

CNN —A new study on breast cancer deaths raises questions around whether Black women should screen at earlier ages. Even though Black women have a 4% lower incidence rate of breast cancer than White women, they have a 40% higher breast cancer death rate. “When the breast cancer mortality rate for Black women in their 40s is 27 deaths per 100,000 person-years, this means 27 out of every 100,000 Black women aged 40-49 in the US die of breast cancer during one year of follow-up. They also wrote that health policy makers should pursue equity, not just equality, when it comes to breast cancer screening as a tool to help reduce breast cancer death rates. Having dense tissue in the breast can make it more difficult for radiologists to identify breast cancer on a mammogram, and women with dense breast tissue have a higher risk of breast cancer.

☆ Fact Check-Mammograms do not expose women to Hiroshima-level radiation
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Breast cancer screenings reduce deaths from breast cancer and have considerably lower radiation levels than nuclear or atomic bombs, contrary to claims circulating in a video on social media. Dr Veronique Desaulniers, a bio-energetic chiropractor according to her LinkedIn profile, warns about the purported dangers of breast cancer screening in the clip posted on Instagram (here). “A decade of annual mammography would yield a total radiation dose 10 times that: 3.6 mSv,” he adds. A reduction in breast cancer deaths has been primarily attributed to mammography screening and early breast cancer detection (here). There is a radiation risk to the breasts of teenagers and women in their early 20s due to development, however, the risk drops rapidly as women age, according to Kopans.

☆ Health plans could soon reduce coverage for preventive care. Here's what to know
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Annie Nova | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Around 100 million people with private insurance got preventive care required under the ACA in 2018, one estimate found, making it the provision with the widest reach. Insurers generally must not impose copays or deductibles on the recommended preventive care. "Many preventive care services are not covered by this decision," Simon said. Health plans will still be required to ensure no copays for many preventive services, including birth control and mammograms, Simon said. Some states have their own mandates, meanwhile, around free preventive care.

☆ Mammograms Must Include Breast Density Information, New FDA Rule Says
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Talal Ansari | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The Food and Drug Administration said updated mammography regulations will help provide important information that could affect patient care. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has updated its mammography regulations to require that women be notified if they have dense breast tissue, which can make imaging less precise and cancer harder to find. About half of women over the age of 40 in the U.S. have dense breasts, with more fibrous and glandular tissue than fatty tissue, according to the FDA. Not only can dense tissue make it harder for cancers to be detected in a mammogram, it has also “been identified as a risk factor for developing breast cancer,” the FDA said in a statement Thursday.

☆ Women Have Been Misled About Menopause
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( Susan Dominus | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

Until she stumbled on Alloy, she’d been relying on antibacterial creams to soothe the pain she felt. The space was clearly a no-judgment zone, a place where women could talk about how they personally felt about the risks and benefits of taking hormones. “My new OB-GYN and my cancer doc won’t put me on hormones,” the woman said. Faubion told me that in certain circumstances, higher-risk women who are fully informed of the risks but suffer terrible symptoms might reasonably make the decision to opt for hormones. Only once I took the hormones did I appreciate that my regular 2 a.m. wakings, too, were most likely a symptom of perimenopause.

"Everybody has a different amount of fibroglandular tissue and a different pattern," Freer said, referring to dense breast tissue. In individual interviews as part of Gunn's survey, six out of 61 women said dense breasts contributed to breast cancer risk. There are two reasons dense breasts are linked to a higher risk of breast cancer. To lower one's risk of breast cancer overall, doctors recommend limiting alcohol intake, exercising regularly and maintaining a healthy diet. The Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium offers an online tool to help people gauge their breast cancer risk based on multiple factors, including breast density.

☆ Only 14% of diagnosed cancers in the US are detected by screening, report says
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Jacqueline Howard | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —A small proportion – 14.1% – of all diagnosed cancers in the United States are detected by screening with a recommended screening test, according to a new report. “I was shocked that only 14% of cancers were detected by screening. I think, for many people, we talk so much about cancer screening that we imagine that that’s how all cancers are diagnosed. She suspects that the percentage of cancers detected by screening could now be even lower than what was found in the new report. “I definitely think that the percent of cancers detected by screening would have been lower as a result of the pandemic.

☆ Texas Lawsuit Challenges Key Plank of Affordable Care Act
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Stephanie Armour | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Employers have often supported preventive-care services because they say it helps reduce healthcare costs. WASHINGTON—A key element of the Affordable Care Act hangs in the balance as a federal lawsuit in Texas is challenging the law’s requirement that most insurers cover an array of preventive health services that range from screenings for depression to mammograms. A district court judge ruled in September that the way a federal task force determines which services are covered is unconstitutional and said the health-insurance requirement for HIV-prevention medications violated a company’s religious freedom.

For good.”R&B superstar Blige said she lost aunts and other family members to breast, cervical and lung cancer. She has promoted breast cancer screening in the past, especially among Black women who are disproportionately affected, through the Black Women’s Health Imperative. First lady Jill Biden, right, holds hands with singer Mary J. Blige during an event to launch the American Cancer Society's national roundtables on breast and cervical cancer in the State Dining Room of the White House, on Monday. Patrick Semansky / APBlige blamed misconceptions about mammograms among Black women and “the practice of not wanting other people in our business” for disparities in breast cancer outcomes between Blacks and whites. “She has a rock-hard mass in her breast,” Gore said.

☆ Normani recalls feeling ‘helpless’ while supporting her mom through breast cancer
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-10 | by ( Liz Calvario | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

Normani knows what it feels like to have a family member be diagnosed with breast cancer. In an op-ed for Elle magazine, the singer recalled feeling “helpless” after her mom was diagnosed for a second time. “I was in Los Angeles when I found out my mom had been diagnosed with breast cancer again. Three weeks earlier, when I was visiting my mom at home, she’d fallen into my arms expressing how scared she was,” Normani, who is an American Cancer Society ambassador, wrote. Additionally a 2021 report from American Society of Clinical Oncologists drops in cancer screenings, delays in care and other aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic have worsened the health disparities that Black women with breast cancer face.

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