Breast Density

Breast density, or fibroglandular density, is found through breast imaging and varies based on the amount of fat to the amount of connective tissue. About 50 percent of women have what is referred to as dense breasts, where the tissue appears white on mammograms and can hide cancers, which also appear white. Women with very dense breasts may need to undergo supplemental imaging that can see through dense breast tissue, such as breast ultrasound, breast MRI or nuclear imaging. Many U.S. states now have legislation requiring radiologists to inform patients if they have dense breasts. Some states also now require insurance companies to cover supplemental imaging  in these patients. Breast density is graded into 4 classes, or BI-RAD scores, to explain the level of density in the radiology report. 

55-year-old woman who underwent screening mammogram and ultrasound 7 days after first COVID-19 vaccination dose. Screening mammogram and US demonstrated unilateral left axillary lymph node with cortical thickness of 5 mm on ultrasound (not shown). BI-RADS category 0 was assigned. Ultrasound from diagnostic work-up performed 7 days later showed no change in lymph node size. BI-RADS 3 was assigned. #COVIDvaccine #COVID19

55-year-old woman who underwent screening mammogram and ultrasound 7 days after first COVID-19 vaccination dose. Screening mammogram and US demonstrated unilateral left axillary lymph node with cortical thickness of 5 mm on ultrasound (not shown). BI-RADS category 0 was assigned. Ultrasound from diagnostic work-up performed 7 days later showed no change in lymph node size. BI-RADS 3 was assigned.

News | Breast Imaging | February 24, 2021
COVID-19 Vaccination Axillary Adenopathy Detected During Breast Imaging
February 24, 2021 — An open-access article in ARRS’ American Journal of Roentgenology (AJR) describes the clinical and...
read more
Breast Cancer Index added to National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines to predict benefit from extended endocrine therapy
News | Women's Health | February 23, 2021
Hologic Completes Acquisition of Biotheranostics, Enabling Entry into Growing Oncology Market
February 23, 2021 — Hologic, Inc. has completed its previously announced acquisition of molecular oncology leader...
read more
A comparison of standard mammography imaging (left) in a woman with dense breasts and a breast MRI imaging study (right) showing a clearly defined cancer and is extremely hard to detect on the mammograms.

A comparison of standard mammography imaging (left) in a woman with dense breasts and a breast MRI imaging study (right) showing a clearly defined cancer and is extremely hard to detect on the mammograms. Images from Christiane Kuhl, M.D.

Feature | MRI Breast | February 17, 2021 | By Dave Fornell, Editor
Use of Breast MRI Screening in Women With Dense Breasts
Dense breast tissue can hide cancers in mammograms in about half of women. Supplemental imaging is often needed to...
read more
Screening strategy based on baseline breast density at age 40 may be effective and cost-effective for reducing breast cancer mortality

Getty Images

News | Breast Density | February 10, 2021
Risk-based Breast Cancer Screening
February 10, 2021 — A mammography screening strategy based on a baseline breast density measure at age 40 may be the...
read more
Comparison of breast cancer mortality rates (red squares) and distant-stage breast cancer incidence rates from SEER9 (blue dots) and SEER18 (green dots) per 100,000 for white women aged, A, 20–39, B, 40–69, and, C, 70–79 years (3,7,8).

Comparison of breast cancer mortality rates (red squares) and distant-stage breast cancer incidence rates from SEER9 (blue dots) and SEER18 (green dots) per 100,000 for white women aged, A, 20–39, B, 40–69, and, C, 70–79 years (3,7,8). Image courtesy of Radiology 

News | Breast Imaging | February 10, 2021
Breast Cancer Death Rates Stop Declining in Younger Women
February 10, 2021 — Breast cancer death rates have stopped declining for women in the U.S. younger than age 40, ending...
read more
Volpara Health, a health technology software company whose integrated breast care platform assists in the delivery of personalized patient care, announced the acquisition of CRA Health, LLC, a breast cancer risk assessment company spinoff from Massachusetts General Hospital — a Harvard Medical School teaching hospital.

Getty Images

News | Breast Imaging | February 02, 2021
Volpara Acquires Breast Cancer Risk Assessment Company CRA Health, LLC.
February 2, 2021 — Volpara Health, a health technology software company whose integrated breast care platform assists...
read more
A nationwide panel of experts has developed the first mammography guidelines for older survivors of breast cancer, providing a framework for discussions between survivors and their physicians on the pros and cons of screening in survivors' later years.

Getty Images

News | Mammography | January 29, 2021
First Mammography Screening Guidelines Issued for Older Survivors of Breast Cancer
January 29, 2021 — A nationwide panel of experts has developed the first mammography guidelines for older survivors of...
read more
Hologic, Inc. announced the expansion of its ultrasound portfolio with the launch of the new SuperSonic MACH 20 ultrasound system
News | Ultrasound Imaging | January 29, 2021
Hologic Expands Ultrasound Portfolio to Address Full Spectrum of Imaging Needs
January 29, 2021— Hologic, Inc. announced the expansion of its ultrasound portfolio with the launch of the new...
read more
The four standard views of an individual mammogram were fed into Mirai. The image encoder mapped each view to a vector, and the image aggregator combined the four view vectors into a single vector for the mammogram. In this work, we used a single shared ResNet-18 as an image encoder, and a transformer as our image aggregator. The risk factor predictor module predicted all the risk factors used in the Tyrer-Cuzick model, including age, detailed family history, and hormonal factors, from the mammogram vector.

The four standard views of an individual mammogram were fed into Mirai. The image encoder mapped each view to a vector, and the image aggregator combined the four view vectors into a single vector for the mammogram. In this work, we used a single shared ResNet-18 as an image encoder, and a transformer as our image aggregator. The risk factor predictor module predicted all the risk factors used in the Tyrer-Cuzick model, including age, detailed family history, and hormonal factors, from the mammogram vector. The additive hazard layer combined information from both the image aggregator and risk factors (predicted or given) to predict coherent risk assessments across 5 years (Yr).

News | Breast Imaging | January 28, 2021
Mammogram-based Breast Cancer Risk Model Could Lead to Better Screening Guidelines
January 28, 2021 — A new machine learning algorithm based on mammograms can estimate the risk of breast cancer in women...
read more
Radiologists have recently taken on the role of activists and are tackling pressing issues in healthcare, including breast density

Getty Images

Feature | Women's Health | January 20, 2021 | By Fazila Seker, Ph.D.
Stepping Up to the Big Issues
Radiologists — who have long been professionals in the metaphorical and literal back-rooms of healthcare — have...
read more
Solis Mammography, the nation’s largest independent provider of breast health and diagnostic services, announced that it has expanded its state-of-the-art multimodality medical imaging capabilities in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, DC through the acquisition of Progressive Radiology.
News | Breast Imaging | January 15, 2021
Solis Mammography Announces the Acquisition of Progressive Radiology
January 15, 2021 — Solis Mammography, the nation’s largest independent provider of breast health and diagnostic...
read more
A targeted intervention providing mammograms to hospitalized Medicaid patients can help patients complete overdue breast cancer screening

Getty Images

News | Mammography | January 14, 2021
Inpatient Mammograms Can Reduce Disparities in Breast Cancer Screening Rates
January 14, 2021 — Completing cancer screening tests, such as mammograms, can be challenging for low-income people, who...
read more
DB-I website features new educational tools and streamlined user experience to improve access to medically sourced breast density content
News | Breast Density | January 13, 2021
DenseBreast-info Launches Updated Website
January 13, 2021 — DenseBreast-info.org (DB-I) invites health providers seeking the most up-to-date medically-sourced...
read more
World-first techniques for predicting breast cancer risk from mammograms that were developed in Melbourne could revolutionise breast screening by allowing it to be tailored to women at minimal extra cost

Getty Images

News | Mammography | January 06, 2021
New Mammogram Measures of Breast Cancer Risk Could Revolutionize Screening
January 6, 2021 — World-first techniques for predicting breast cancer risk from mammograms that were developed in...
read more
Transaction accelerates Hologic’s entry into oncology growth market, provides new lab capabilities

Getty Images

News | Breast Imaging | January 06, 2021
Hologic to Acquire Biotheranostics, Leader in Molecular Tests for Breast and Metastatic Cancers
January 6, 2021 — Hologic, Inc., a global leader in women's health, announced today that it has agreed to acquire...
read more
Deal further expands Hologic’s portfolio of world-class breast health solutions addressing the full continuum of care
News | Breast Imaging | January 04, 2021
Hologic to Acquire SOMATEX, Leader in Biopsy Site Markers and Localization Technologies
January 4, 2021 — Hologic, Inc. announced it has completed the acquisition of SOMATEX Medical Technologies GmbH, a...
read more
Smart Breast Corporation (SmartBreast), a privately held company focused on breast cancer screening and detection, announced today that it has acquired certain molecular breast imaging (MBI) assets from Dilon Technologies, Inc. (Dilon) for an undisclosed amount.
News | Breast Imaging | January 04, 2021
SmartBreast Acquires Molecular Breast Imaging Assets from Dilon Technologies
January 4, 2021 — Smart Breast Corporation (SmartBreast), a privately held company focused on breast cancer screening...
read more
Volpara Health announced two new research studies using AI-powered software to score breast density objectively and consistently to evaluate its impact in mammography and breast cancer risk assessment.
News | Breast Density | December 30, 2020
Volpara Health's AI-powered Breast Density Software Central to New Breast Density Studies
December 30, 2020 — Volpara Health announced two new research studies using AI-powered software to score breast density...
read more
The American College of Radiology (ACR), Society of Breast Imaging (SBI), patient advocates and others secured an extension of the moratorium on harmful 2009 and 2016 United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) Breast Cancer Screening Guidelines from Dec. 31, 2021 to Dec. 31, 2022.

Getty Images

News | Breast Imaging | December 29, 2020
Mammography Protections in Year-end Legislation Help Efforts to Address Breast Cancer Care Disparities
December 29, 2020 — The American College of Radiology (ACR), Society of Breast Imaging (SBI), patient advocates and...
read more
According to recent studies, an increase in the COVID-19 positivity rate correlates to an increase in mortality from non-coronavirus-related diseases. This includes breast cancer, and researchers believe fear of contracting the virus compels patients to stay home instead of completing their post-lumpectomy radiotherapy regimens.

Image courtesy of Zeiss

News | Radiation Therapy | December 21, 2020
Single-Dose Radiation Therapy Can Counteract Serious Breast Cancer Treatment Compliance Issues During Pandemic
December 21, 2020 — According to recent studies, an increase in the COVID-19 positivity rate correlates to an increase...
read more
© Copyright Wainscot Media. All Rights Reserved.