May 20, 2015, ST. LOUIS - A new bit of confusion for women when it comes to breast screening and preventing breast cancer. A new study says dense breasts may not need additional screening.
Dense breasts are thought to carry a higher cancer risk and those women are often encouraged to get additional screening after their mammogram through either ultrasound or MRI.
“There are times the additional screening brings additional cost, anxiety, time and treatment that women don’t need,” says SLUCare breast surgeon Theresa Schwartz, MD, at SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital.
The new study in Annals of Internal Medicine suggests only about half of women with dense tissue are at such a high risk that they need additional screening and overall only 12% of women with dense breasts really need additional screening.
Dr. Schwartz points out:
1. Insurance typically won’t pay for additional screening and it could be $200-300 for an ultrasound or more than $2000 for an MRI.
2. Women ultimately may not need it. No data supports additional screening because most issues they find are very small and don’t need to be treated that early.
For more, watch the above interview with Dr. Schwartz and FOX2’s Randi Naughton.
