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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dense breast tissue | 2/2 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dense_breast_tissue | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T07:27:41.578373+00:00 | kb-cron |
==== United States ==== The issues of diagnosing breast cancer for such affected women are required to be a part of the information given and the suggestion of additional testing using alternative methods. Most legislation also has any mammograms taken be given to the patient's physician and made a part of their medical record. The first state legislation on dense breast notifications was passed in 2009 in Connecticut after advocacy by breast cancer survivor Nancy Cappello, who had been diagnosed with stage 3 cancer owing to the failure of mammograms to detect the growing tumor. Other states have passed their own legislation, with Texas, for example, passing Henda's Law in 2011. By 2015, 19 states had legal notification statutes for dense breast tissue. A federal law titled the Mammography Quality Standards Act (MQSA) already covers and regulates how mammography reports are handled and requires sending dense breast identification to physicians. But the law did not include notifying the patient; state-level laws have sought to account for this gap in regulation since 2009. A federal bill to expand the MQSA was presented to Congress in October of 2011, but was not passed. Subsequent federal bills were signed into law in February of 2019 and resulted in the FDA updating the MQSA to require reporting of mammograms to patients by all mammography facilities. The MQSA was amended again in 2023, requiring all patients to be notified of their breast density ("dense" or "not dense") in their mammogram reports as of September 10, 2024. Research in 2021 by Kressin et al. on the impact of the state and federal laws regarding dense breasts found that notification laws increased the likelihood of women being informed about dense breasts by 1.5 times, but women who were people of color (POC) and particularly those with lower incomes were less likely to be informed by their physicians than non-POC who were in wealthier income brackets. This included being informed of the higher risk of developing breast cancer. Another 2021 review found that breast density notifications led to higher supplemental screening.
==== Canada ==== As of 2023, most provinces require notification of breast density level; some regions such as Quebec, the Northwest Territories, and Yukon record the data but do not automatically inform patients.
=== Europe === In 2022, the European Society of Breast Imaging, part of the European Society of Radiology, published a recommendation that women be informed at screenings of their breast density, as well as recommending MRI screening every two to four years for those between the ages of 50 and 70 with extremely dense breast tissue. A 2025 review published in the European Journal of Radiology found that MRI screening on extremely dense breasts may be limited due to inaccessibility and high cost.
=== Australia === The 2020 position statement from BreastScreen Australia states that the "Standing Committee on Screening recommends that, until more evidence is available on how breast density is best assessed and managed (including evidence to support clinical pathways), BreastScreen Australia should not routinely record breast density or provide supplemental testing for women with dense breasts." As of 2023, women in South Australia will be informed of their breast density after a study showed they strongly preferred to be informed of this information.
== References ==