00:01When Kate Clark's breast started leaking orange fluid, she knew there was something wrong with her body.
00:08I'd had a mammogram and an ultrasound and both had come back clear.
00:13But because of my leaking nipple, I didn't want to leave it there.
00:18After being mistakenly cleared twice, it took an MRI scan to detect cancer.
00:24Once I'd had that MRI, basically it just lit up like a Christmas tree.
00:27Dense breasts, like Ms Clark's, make cancer harder to detect through routine mammograms.
00:34Breast density is determined by the amount of fatty tissue versus fibrous and glandular tissue,
00:39and it's a risk factor for developing breast cancer.
00:42Had I not pursued it further, I could be in a much worse place now, and perhaps not even be
00:51here.
00:51We know that breast density is a risk factor for breast cancer,
00:55and we certainly know that approximately 40% of women will be at risk of high breast density.
01:01And so it's vitally important that women are notified of their status in order to understand their risk.
01:08In 2024, or Breast Screen Australia updated its policy to recommend that everyone screened
01:14be informed in writing of their breast density and encouraged to consider extra screening.
01:20But Breast Screen ACT, run by the Territory Government, still doesn't report on potentially life-saving breast density,
01:28and nor do services in the Northern Territory, Tasmania and Queensland.
01:32That's despite committing to its implementation a year ago.
01:36This was a national position statement put out in November 2024,
01:40and yet in ACT and a number of other states, 20 months on,
01:44we're still waiting to see the prioritisation of this implementation.
01:48The ACT Government says it will be available through Breast Screen ACT next year.
01:54We know there's assistive technology that is available in market to support our clinicians to understand breast density.
02:02I feel that that's not good enough.
02:04I think that they're letting all of us women down by not implementing it.
02:09Should they decide to implement it, it would be life-changing for so many women.
02:15Life-changing, and for some, life-saving.
02:18Life-changing, and against the occurring.
02:19Life-changing and Narc thousand ďż˝ but planning.
02:20To be௠wrong.
02:20Jane Arch so well Ă Plato Was
02:20helping you to use this research. To
