Dense breast notification laws tied to more screening, cancer diagnoses

Laws that only require women to be told they have dense breasts, without any further information, don't seem to make a difference in extra screenings or cancers detected, the study team reports in American Journal of Public Health. Roughly half of U.S. women in their 40s and 50s have dense breast tissue, which increases their risk of breast cancer and makes it harder to detect tumors with mammography. Several states require healthcare providers to send notification letters to women whose mammograms show dense breast tissue.