New Law to improve breast cancer detection taking effect Saturday
By: Chelsea Rarrick
Updated: January 20, 2013
The end of 2002 was a year that Patti McGee would never forget.
That December, she was diagnosed with breast cancer, and it raised some questions.
"Am I going to be here for my son to see his next birthday? All those things go through your head," said McGee.
Fast forward to 2013 and Patti now calls herself a survivor.
And as a survivor, she knows the importance of being aware of her body.
"Get your mammograms, go to all your doctor's appointments," she said.
She also knows she has dense breast tissue, which makes it harder to detect early cancer in a mammogram, and now there's a new law to make even more women aware.
Starting Saturday, women that going for a mammogram will now get a report notifying them if they have dense breast tissue.
"This software will also tell them what category that breast tissue falls into for the density......it will automatically tell them so it's also consistent, it's not up to the radiologist to determine what that density is," said Suzy Burns, a Nurse Navigator at Faxton St. Luke's.
Burns says this is a way to give patients a heads up and talk about possibly moving forward after seeing the results.
"Any test we can do to help catch any chance that our cancer is going to come back, I'm a firm believer in it," said McGee.
Burns says she's all for early detection, but has concerns and says medicare isn't going to pay for the next steps after the mammogram.
"If they wanted to move forward with being able to have that screening ultrasound done
That December, she was diagnosed with breast cancer, and it raised some questions.
"Am I going to be here for my son to see his next birthday? All those things go through your head," said McGee.
Fast forward to 2013 and Patti now calls herself a survivor.
And as a survivor, she knows the importance of being aware of her body.
"Get your mammograms, go to all your doctor's appointments," she said.
She also knows she has dense breast tissue, which makes it harder to detect early cancer in a mammogram, and now there's a new law to make even more women aware.
Starting Saturday, women that going for a mammogram will now get a report notifying them if they have dense breast tissue.
"This software will also tell them what category that breast tissue falls into for the density......it will automatically tell them so it's also consistent, it's not up to the radiologist to determine what that density is," said Suzy Burns, a Nurse Navigator at Faxton St. Luke's.
Burns says this is a way to give patients a heads up and talk about possibly moving forward after seeing the results.
"Any test we can do to help catch any chance that our cancer is going to come back, I'm a firm believer in it," said McGee.
Burns says she's all for early detection, but has concerns and says medicare isn't going to pay for the next steps after the mammogram.
"If they wanted to move forward with being able to have that screening ultrasound done
