Tuesday, September 19, 2023

PROCLAMATION: 9/27 Is World Dense Breast Tissue Day

9/19/2023- Mr. Joe Cappello, co-founder of the "Are You Dense?" Foundation was invited to attend the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors meeting at County Government Center to receive an official proclamation by Santa Clara County Supervisor (and former California State Senator) JOE SIMITIAN, officially confirming September 27 as World Dense Breast Tissue Day.  According to Mr. Simitian, this proclamation was sparked by earlier discussions about the late Nancy Cappello who passed away of breast-cancer related complications from dense breast tissue.  "(Nancy's) own life experience... said others should have more power, more knowledge, more ability to affect the decision making in their own healthcare. For this, we are a better state, a better county, and in fact a better nation by virtue of her work."

To date, Joe Cappello continues to build and promote educational programs supporting research, clinical upgrades and improved scanning/monitoring programs.  The "Are You Dense?" Foundation and "Are You Dense?" Advocacy are produced by the Cappellos in pursuit of saving lives through awareness through uniting with community leaders, clinical professionals and public recognition off the continued risks of having dense breast tissue.



TRANSCRIPT OF PROCLAMATION: 9/19/2023- County of Santa Clara Board of Supervisors

SPEAKER: Santa Clara County (CA) Supervisor Joe Simitian- District 5

Thank you, Madam President. And I'm going to look to the clerk to see if we can bring Mr. Joe Cappello from “Are You Dense?” in Connecticut up on the screen. I'll ask for a moment of patience, colleagues. 

Colleagues and members of the public, you'll recall of course that just last week, we adjourned our meeting in memory of Nancy Cappello, who passed away almost five years ago now. And it provided an opportunity for our board to reflect on Nancy's extraordinary work over literally decades. We also took the opportunity at our last meeting to express our formal support for the Find It Early Act which is an effort at the national level congressional level to take the next step in terms of addressing the cancer risk of women with dense breast tissue. Today, we are calling out the formal acknowledgement of World Dense Breast Tissue Day. And the reason for that, Joe, and colleagues and members of the public is to ensure that we take advantage of this opportunity to identify September 27th as World Dense Breast Tissue Day, so that members of the public will have the information, the knowledge, the power that Nancy Cappello thought they were entitled to all those years ago.

And as we have discussed previously (so I won't speak at quite substantial length today) this is information that patients need to have. They are now entitled to have it by law.  That entitlement is in large measure, a function of the fact that Nancy Cappello took her own life experience and said others should have more power, more knowledge, more ability to affect the decision making in their own healthcare. For this, we are a better state, a better county, and in fact a better nation by virtue of her work.

Joe, if you were here, I would have you up to the podium and I would hand you the physical commendation. But by virtue of our virtual connection today, I will virtually present it to you and we will send you the physical commendation and I hope it will find a place at “Are You Dense?”. 

I'm guessing that your screen-? It doesn't reveal it, but I am wearing on my lapel the “Are You Dense?” button which I wore all those years ago when I was privileged to work with Nancy and the organization on California law. With that, Madam President, I say thank you to our board, and to my colleagues for their support on this measure and through the chair. With your permission, I'd like to give Mr. Cappello an opportunity to say a brief word or two.

Guest Speaker: JOE CAPPELLO
Well, thank you, Senator. As I said before, it's a real pleasure. I finally got to meet the other Joe in Nancy's life. And believe me, she always had kind words to say about you, and you were always a standup guy. You were the one that she could count on for honesty and truthfulness when we were doing our legislative work in California.  What we have now is a disclosure law, which is a national law, which will take effect a year from now.  This is huge step for the health of women all over this nation. What it's going to do is standardize (diagnostic care) in the medical field for women with dense breasts. I thank you in the name of Nancy for the proclamation. She deserves it all. She worked hard and worked smart. She was not only prettier than me, <laugh>, but smarter than me. And, I thank you on her behalf. I appreciate that. Thank you.

SPEAKER SIMITIAN:
Thank you, Joe Cappello.  Thanks to "Are You Dense?" And thank you Madam President. We appreciate the work.

The Board of Supervisors of the County of Santa Clara, CA regularly meets in the Board of Supervisors’ Chambers, County Government Center, 70 West Hedding Street, San Jose. Regular meetings are held on designated Tuesdays at 9:30 a.m. The Board also holds regular meetings for the purpose of adjourning into Closed Session on Mondays at 2:00 p.m., which may be combined with meetings scheduled for the presentation of ceremonial items to be heard at 4:00 p.m.




Original airing: 10/2021 

A NEED TO STANDARDIZE SCREENING WITH DENSE BREAST SCANNING

 

RUNNING THE TORCH OF A DENSE BREAST CANCER CHAMPION
Dr. Noelle Cutter drives the spirit of Dr. Nancy Cappello's mission for early cancer detection for women with dense breasts alongside Dr. Robert Bard's dense breast screening pilot program (8/27-29) - and the global pursuit to expand current screening standards.

What Does It Mean to Have Dense Breasts?


A mammogram shows how dense your breasts are. When you get the results of your mammogram, you may also be told if your breasts have low or high density. Women with dense breasts have a higher risk of getting breast cancer.


















PARTS OF THE BREAST
A woman’s breast has three kinds of tissue: FIBROUS TISSUE holds the breast tissue in place.  GLANDULAR TISSUE is the part of the breast that makes milk, called the lobes, and the tubes that carry milk to the nipple, called ducts. Together, fibrous and glandular tissue are called fibroglandular tissue.  FATTY TISSUE fills the space between the fibrous tissue, lobes, and ducts. It gives the breasts their size and shape.

BREAST CANCER RISK: Women with dense breasts have a higher chance of getting breast cancer. The more dense your breasts are, the higher your risk. Scientists don’t know for sure why this is true. Breast cancer patients who have dense breasts are not more likely to die from breast cancer than patients with non-dense (fatty) breasts.



7/8/2021- A wave of recognized medical sites, journals and reports  are now indicating that dense breast tissue increases the risk of developing breast cancer and often masks a tumor from being seen on the mammogram since dense tissue is white and cancerous tissue is also white. Mammograms are the standard screening test for breast cancer, however, in the 21st Century, ultrasound non invasive imaging is the preferred exam for dense “lumpy” mammary disease.   The 1st World Conference of Breast Ultrasound in Philadelphia (1979) recognized ultrasound superiority in dense breast diagnostics but the density level was never quantified until recently. Mammography assessment of breast density is graded into four categories. Mammographers readily admit that these levels are subjective at best and technical factors such as mammary tissue compression and x-ray voltage/amperage dramatically influence the darkness or whiteness of the image.



URGENCY IN THE EVOLUTION OF TECHNOLOGY & IMAGING STRATEGIES FOR DENSE BREASTS

Written by: Dr. Robert L. Bard

Decades since the advent of breast scanning technology, innovations in non-invasive diagnostic imaging provide new options in the field of early detection. These technologies directly align with breast density screening (and are part of the Bard Breast Density Diagnostic Program) include:

• Doppler blood flow
• Contrast enhanced ultrasound vascularity 
• 3D Vessel Density Histogram 
• 4D Volumetric Density Histogram
• Strain and shear wave tissue Elastography 
• 3T MRI 
• Optical Computed Tomography (OCT) for nipple lesions
• Reflectance Confocal Microscopy (RCM)  for dermal invasion
• Hybrid Mammo Imaging Fusion
 Thermo-sensor
 Trans Illumination
 Near Infrared Specroscopy

Hybrid imaging refers to combining diagnostic modalities to assess disease and monitor therapy. A useful combination of options is the tumor vessel flow density to assess aggression and treatment progress. Similarly, tissue elastography is useful for border detection of malignant masses.


FOR COMPLETE DETAILS ON THIS PROGRAM, VISIT: http://breastcancernyc.com/


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