PERSONAL STORY: Dr. Nancy M. Cappello's Story

While searching on the Dense Breast Tissue issue, I came across an incredibly proactive lady, Dr. Nancy M. Capello, who turned her own experience with breast cancer into a force of strength to help other women, wherever they are. Let's her be the one to tell you more of who she is and what she's been doing...

Dr. Nancy M. Cappello

<< I did everything the medical community told me to do. I ate healthy, exercised daily, had no first-degree relatives with breast cancer, and had a decade of yearly "normal" mammograms. Two months after my "normal" mammogram, my doctor discovered a “ridge” in my breast. She ordered another mammogram and ultrasound. The mammogram revealed "nothing" yet the ultrasound detected a 2.5 cm mass with 13 cancerous lymph nodes -a "normal" mammogram weeks before -is that EARLY detection? My physician informed me that I have dense breast tissue and for women like me (2/3 of pre-menopausal and 1/4 of post menopausal women) mammograms are limited in "seeing" the cancer through the density. This was the first time I was informed about my dense breast tissue. During treatment, I searched medical journals and uncovered research which demonstrated by supplementing mammogram with ultrasound cancer detection increases from 48% to 97% in women with dense breasts.

"It is not the standard protocol to inform women about their breast density," said my surgeon. I was outraged that the medical community knew about this fatal flaw in early detection and was not sharing this life-saving information with women. I pledged to ensure that no other woman unnecessarily suffers the tragedy of a later stage cancer. I developed an Are You Dense? informational brochure and began educating the community about dense breast tissue. I worked with the Connecticut Legislature and, in 2005, the State enacted legislation which required insurance companies to cover whole breast ultrasound screening for women with dense breast tissue. As I continued my public speaking, even with an ultrasound screening bill, most women were still not informed of their breast density. So, in 2007, I worked again with the legislature on a bill to communicate breast density information to women through their mammography report.

The watershed moment came two years later when the bill was finally supported by the Connecticut Society of Radiologists, passed two legislative committees and the Senate. By Session's end, the bill was not called by the House for a vote. I was devastated. I had three choices -give up this mission, revive the bill next year, or relentlessly pursue exposing the secret of dense breast tissue. I chose the latter haunted with knowledge that women may have a hidden intruder stealing their life. I personally funded a website (www.areyoudense.org) and concurrently filed for federal designation as a public charity. Are You Dense, Inc. was born. Two years later, the website, which has a Spanish version, receives visitors from 41 countries.

Five years after my advanced stage diagnosis, on October 1, 2009, Connecticut became the first state to require the communication of breast density to the patient through her mammography report. This landmark legislation has made a significant impact in the standard protocol of early detection. Women are now informed of their breast density and have access to reliable screening tools to find cancer early when it is most treatable.

Connecticut's law has encouraged women in other states to advocate for a breast density bill. These women, like me, learned about their breast density after their cancer was detected within a year of a "normal" mammogram. Presently, there are pending bills in Florida, New York, Texas, and Massachusetts. Other States are actively seeking legislation (Missouri, Kansas, California). Together we founded D.E.N.S.E. (Density Education National Survivors' Effort) and are working on a Federal Bill.

Every 3 minutes a woman in the United States is diagnosed with breast cancer. Thirty-eight percent of newly diagnosed breast cancers is at the advanced stage. This life's work is making a significant impact by giving women with dense breast tissue access to an early breast cancer diagnosis. I never had that opportunity. >>

Nancy M. Cappello, Ph.D.
President and Founder
Are You Dense, Inc.

A 501(c)(3) Public Charity
Founding Member of D.E.N.S.E. (Density Education National Survivors' Effort)


For more info, please visit:

http://www.areyoudense.org 

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