Thanks to a generous Baptist Memorial Health Care Foundation grant, the Baptist Women’s Health Center recently became the first and only breast center in the Memphis area to offer patients the Invenia Automated Breast Ultrasound (ABUS), an FDA-approved screening technology designed specifically for women with dense breast tissue.
“It’s kind of a two-fold problem when you have dense breast tissue,” said Dr. Lynn Gayden, a breast radiologist and medical director of the Baptist Women’s Health Center. “It actually does increase your risk of developing breast cancer, and it also makes it a lot harder to find breast cancer.”
Breasts are made of fat and glandular tissue. Approximately 40 percent of women have dense breasts, or an abundance of glandular tissue compared to fat. Dense breasts are more likely to hide masses and lumps when analyzed with a standard mammogram, and women who have dense breast tissue have a four to six times greater risk of developing breast cancer than women who do not.
Unlike a standard mammogram, which uses radiation to look for abnormalities in the breasts, the Invenia ABUS uses sonic waves to create a 3D picture of the breasts.
“Well, in mammography, breast cancer can appear many different ways,” said Dr. Gayden. “One of the common ways it can appear is as a lump. And if you have really dense breast tissue, your mammogram is going to look white. People have described it as looking for a snowball in a snowstorm. Cancer can be hidden by all this dense breast tissue. The ABUS does not replace traditional mammography; it is an adjunct to mammography, just one more tool in our arsenal against breast cancer.”
The exam takes approximately 30 minutes and provides doctors with clear 3D ultrasound images. Physicians review patients’ ABUS screening images in addition to their mammograms.
According to Beth Turner, RN, administrative director of the Baptist Women’s Health Center, the Breast Cancer Prevention Act, which started officially in Tennessee on Jan. 1, 2014, requires the following statement to appear on the mammogram reports of women with dense breast tissue:
Your mammogram shows that your breast tissue is dense. Dense breast tissue is common and not abnormal. However, dense breast tissue can make it harder to evaluate the results of your mammogram and may also be associated with an increased risk of breast cancer. This information about the results of your mammogram is given to you to raise your awareness and inform your conversations with your doctor. Together, you can decide which screening options are right for you.
The American Cancer Society recommends that, beginning at age 35-40, women should receive a baseline mammogram and then subsequent mammograms once a year. Women who are at higher risk for breast cancer, either through family history or other factors, should consult their physician about getting annual mammograms much sooner.
For more information about ABUS, please call the Baptist Women’s Health Center at 901-227-PINK or visit baptistonline.org/density.