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Nancy's Chalkboard: blogging and blabbing about breasts and whatever else Nancy fancies

Nancy's Chalkboard Blog

  • The Collateral Damage of Being at Average Risk of Breast Cancer and Having Dense Breasts

    The mortality reduction benefit of early detection by mammography often do not apply to women with dense breast tissue because mammography alone may be less effective.

  • Beyond the Mammogram: 11 Awareness Facts I Discovered After my Advanced Cancer Diagnosis

    I had no anxiety about receiving a cancer diagnosis; after all, the suspicious lesion that illuminated on the ultrasound less than two weeks prior was invisible by mammogram that same day. For 11 years, with no risk factors for breast cancer, I never missed a mammogram appointment. Like most women, I expected that in the unlikely event that I had breast cancer, it would be found early because of my relentless pursuit of annual screening.

  • The Juggling Act of a Caregiver

    Caregiving, while rewarding, can be overwhelming especially when the emotional connection to a spouse or parent is difficult to extricate from their day-to-day personal care needs. It can take an enormous toll on the caregiver's other family obligations, job responsibilities, personal health and finances, adding many more balls to life's normal juggling routine.

  • This Breast Density Troublemaker Goes to Japan: The Impact of Shaking Up the Status Quo

    My work with Dr. Tozaki, albeit conducted in my pajamas from my spare bedroom, resulted in an invitation, along with 24 other global breast health leaders, to lecture at the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Japanese Breast Cancer Society in Tokyo, Japan.

Are You Dense? Fact #1: Breast density is one of the strongest predictors of the failure of mammography screening to detect cancer.

Are You Dense? Fact #2: Two-thirds of pre-menopausal women and 40% of post-menopausal women have dense breast tissue.

Are You Dense? Fact #3: Adding more sensitive tests to mammography significantly increase detection of invasive cancers that are small and node negative.

Are You Dense? Fact #4: American College of Radiology describes women with "Dense Breast Tissue" as having a higher than average risk of Breast Cancer.

Are You Dense? Fact #5: While a mammogram detects 98% of cancers in women with fatty breasts, it finds only 48% in women with dense breasts.

Are You Dense? Fact #6: A woman at average risk and a woman at high risk have an EQUAL chance of having their cancer masked by mammogram.

Are You Dense? Fact #7: Women with dense breasts who had breast cancer have a four times higher risk of recurrence than women with less-dense breasts.

Are You Dense? Fact #8: A substantial proportion of Breast Cancer can be attributed to high breast density alone.

Are You Dense? Fact #9: Cancer turns up five times more often in women with extremely dense breasts than those with the most fatty tissue.

Are You Dense? Fact #10: There are too many women who are unaware of their breast density, believe their “Happy Gram” when it reports no significant findings and are at risk of receiving a later stage cancer diagnosis.