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Wednesday, January 12, 2011

New Technology for Breast Cancer Screening on the Horizon

I thought this Ted Talk by Dr. Deborah Rhodes (see the video below) was really interesting. The possibility of an easier, improved, less costly, and less painful (less breast crunching) alternative to mammography is exciting and it sounds like it's on the horizon.

What is also very interesting in this presentation is the information provided about breast density as a risk factor for breast cancer and what women should know about their own breast density. I urge you to watch this video and be informed about breast density. Know your own breast density status by asking your radiologist. My radiologist didn't volunteer the information for me but he told me when I asked. I went from "very dense" before surgery, treatment, and Arimidex and Tamoxifen to the opposite of dense after. I remember noticing that my right breast (the one without the tumour) suddenly turned droopy about 3 days after I started taking Arimidex. As I understand it, there's a connection between estrogen and breast density and when the Arimidex cut my estrogen, it put an end to my dense breasts. Quite suddenly, too! Ultimately, I'm sure it's much more complicated than that, but if you can figure all that out, please explain it to me.

A bit about the following video ...
Working with a team of physicists, Dr. Deborah Rhodes developed a new tool for tumor detection that's 3 times as effective as traditional mammograms for women with dense breast tissue. The life-saving implications are stunning. So why haven't we heard of it? Rhodes shares the story behind the tool's creation, and the web of politics and economics that keep it from mainstream use.

1 comment:

  1. Thank you for sharing that! I plan on sending it to all of the women in my family!

    ReplyDelete

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