Women should be informed of their breast density, group tells Quebec

A women’s health organization is urging the Quebec Health Ministry to begin providing women with information of vital importance concerning their health — specifically, the density of their breasts.

Without that information, Dense Breasts Canada says, women are unable to take steps to detect breast cancer in a timely fashion.

Breast density — which has nothing to do with breast size — increases the risk of developing breast cancer and makes treatment of tumours more difficult, the group says.

The problem lies in how mammograms are produced. Tumours will appear on the scan as white. However, that is the same colour as breast tissue, making detection of the tumour in a breast with a dense level of tissue the equivalent of trying to detect a snowball in a blizzard.

The group wants the government to add a letter detailing breast density to patients who receive their mammogram report.

“What we’re asking for wouldn’t cost the government an extra penny,” said Dense Breasts Canada director Jennie Dale.

However, the Health Ministry has no intention of adding the information to a letter destined for patients, saying breast density data is sent to the patient’s doctor. A ministry spokesperson said it is preferable that the patient receive that information from their physician, who is then able to explain what the information means, the level of risk that density could represent and how that risk could be reduced.

Dale thinks this is the wrong approach, noting that 3 million women 40 and over in Canada have dense breasts and not all of them have family doctors. Nor will a doctor necessarily contact a patient whose mammogram yields a normal result, making a conversation over breast density unlikely.

Dale said that despite the potential of the information to save lives, it simply “stays in the file.”