Challenges of screening for breast cancer in women with dense breast and providing appropriate guidelines

Introduction: Breast cancer has the highest incidence and mortality rate among women with cancer worldwide. Therefore, early detection of breast cancer is important. On the other hand, mammography, as the most common method of screening for breast cancer, is less sensitive and specific in women with dense breasts. The aim of this review study was to evaluate the challenges of breast cancer screening in women with dense breast and to provide appropriate solutions. The aim of this review study was to evaluate the challenges of breast cancer screening in women with dense breast and to provide appropriate solutions.Methods: In this review study, English articles indexed in valid databases including: Web of Sciences, PubMed, Scopus and Google Scholar were evaluated using English keywords Breast Cancer, Density Breast, Screening during2009-2019.Results: In the present study,26 studies were evaluated. Results show that routine mammography screening in women with dense breast does not detect 27%of tumors,16%report malignant tumors as benign and increase mortality due to late diagnosis of cancer. In addition, studies recommend complementary screening techniques such as ultrasound and MRI in these women. However, at present there is no single clinical guideline for complementary screening in women with dense breast and decision making is different in different countries. Some countries do complementary mammography and ultrasound at the same time and others perform complementary screening if there is a very dense breast tissue.Conclusion: Complementary screening in women with dense mammals is recommended for improved results. However, prospective studies need to be designed and compared between different complementary screening methods.

Challenges of screening for breast cancer in women with dense breast and providing appropriate guidelines Keywords:

Breast cancer , Density Breast , Screening