S1 E9: The Must-Knows of Dense Breasts & Cancer Screening
Women's Health Interrupted
English - May 11, 2022 15:00 - 17 minutes - 16.4 MBMedicine Health & Fitness Science Life Sciences women's health advocacy brain health general health health medicine policy research ubc ubc medicine Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
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In this week’s episode, Rebecca sits down with researcher, Dr. Paula Gordon, and breast cancer survivor and Executive Director of Dense Breasts Canada, Jennie Dale, to break into the science behind breast cancer screening and the importance of early detection practices. We talk about why women with dense breasts are at higher risk for developing more severe forms of breast cancer and what can be done to keep them safe.
Links to resources mentioned in this episode:
Your comprehensive guide to breast screening in Canada
https://mybreastscreening.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Guide-to-Screening-in-Canada.pdf
Failing Canadian Women: The impacts of outdated and inconsistent breast screening practices
https://densebreastscanada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Failing-Canadian-Women.pdf
Petition link
Biographies:
Dr. Paula Gordon is a breast radiologist and professor at the University of British Columbia. She is also a tireless advocate for screening and ultrasound for women with dense breasts starting at age 40 -- options that are not available in most provinces. Dr. Gordon believes that too many women are denied mammograms at 40 because family doctors have not received accurate information. The work she has done in partnership with the organization Dense Breasts Canada (DBC) has been in service of getting accurate information into the hands of patients and their doctors so that women can have the best chance of catching and treating cancers early.
Jennie Dale is the Executive Director of Dense Breasts Canada (DBC). She lives in Ontario. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in October 2014. Mammogram and tomosynthesis did not detect her cancer-it was detected by ultrasound. Inspired by the successful advocacy efforts of American organizations, "areyoudense.org" and "densebreast-info.org," Jennie co-founded DBC with Michelle DiTomaso in 2017 and has teamed up with breast cancer survivors nationwide to raise awareness of the risks of dense breasts. Together, over the past four years, they have successfully advocated for changes in policy in many Canadian provinces.
(C) UBC Medicine Learning Network