Healthwatch: Cancer Risk Factor
By: Tara Joyce
Updated: January 18, 2013
Nine months, a lumpectomy, radiation and chemotherapy helped her beat it. But then she found out she had a second cancer.
Carolyn is among the ten percent of American women with dense breast tissue, often associated with a four to six fold increase in a woman's risk of developing breast cancer. This is in part because tumors can be harder to spot with a mammogram.
Doctor Jennifer Harvey is a breast imaging expert and says there is no easy way to measure breast density. That is why she is developing something to help.
"Our goal in this study is that we are going to include breast density into a risk model. It will be here is your result and here is you risk of breast cancer," says Dr. Harvey.
She believes the personalized model could help women determine how often they should get mammograms, instead of relying on age-based recommendations.
Carolyn fought her second battle with cancer and won. She still gets a mammogram every year.







