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Dr. Archelle Georgiou interviews Dr. Kevin Kelly at the Women's Conference about various breast cancer screening methods including SonoCiné an automated breast ultrasound system and its effectiveness for women with dense breast.
Dr. Archelle Georgiou:
Welcome to EmpowHER.com at the 2010 Women’s Conference. I am Dr. Archelle Georgiou and I have had an absolutely marvelous time at this conference.
We’re coming to the home stretch and then the Minerva Awards that are later today, but as I was wandering through this amazing exhibit hall I came up with my favorite item which is this brand new wig and I have never tried on a wig before. I love it but it felt like it gave me a whole new look and empowered me to maybe act a little sassier, a little different and I think that my husband is probably going to enjoy it too.
So, yesterday I did acupuncture on camera. Today I am wearing my new wig and admitting it on camera and it’s all about feeling empowered to do and say what feels right for you.
But transitioning to a more important topic than this wig and my acupuncture we have a guest today with us, Dr. Kevin Kelly, who is a radiologist and his focus has been really working with women to make sure that dense breasts don’t make them more likely to develop breast cancer. Thank you for joining us.
Dr. Kevin Kelly:
Well thank you Archelle. Yes, this is about women with dense breast. Dense breasts hide cancers on mammograms and I have come up with an ultrasound system that helps find these cancers.
Dr. Archelle Georgiou:
So let’s start with some basics. If we just step back for a moment, how does a woman know if she as dense breasts? How do you know that?
Dr. Kevin Kelly:
The radiologist is required to report whether or not she has dense breasts. So her doctor has a report that will say whether or not she has dense breasts. So all she has to do is talk to that doctor and she will get the answer.
Dr. Archelle Georgiou:
Okay, so it’s information that she has to find from her doctor. It’s not necessarily something that she can feel and know in advance before she even goes to the doctor?
Dr. Kevin Kelly:
No, she will not know. Generally speaking, the younger women tend to have more dense breasts but there are women 85 that have dense breasts also.
Dr. Archelle Georgiou:
Okay. So you go to the doctor; you have your mammogram and so what you are saying is that women should ask whether or not they have dense breast. Certainly their doctor should inform them. Is that the first step?
Dr. Kevin Kelly:
Absolutely, they should ask because if they don’t have dense breast the mammogram goes fine. If they have dense breasts they need more information.
Dr. Archelle Georgiou:
Okay, so how do we get more information? What’s that next step?
Dr. Kevin Kelly:
The next step is either an ultrasound or an MRI. MRIs are relatively expensive and an ultrasound, if possible, should be an ultrasound that’s designed to actually show these cancers that you can’t see.
Dr. Archelle Georgiou:
So is it a special ultrasound that you’ve developed or any kind of ultrasound that the doctor might have in their office?
Dr. Kevin Kelly:
Well the first possibility is that it is an ultrasound that is designed for detection, which is what I’ve developed. If they are not able to access that then they would get a whole breast ultrasound of both breasts that’s hand done.
Dr. Archelle Georgiou:
And how widespread is this ultrasound technology for looking at dense breasts across the United States?
Dr. Kevin Kelly:
There are 15 of them now in the United States. We have one in New York, number of cities. We are adding them probably pretty close to one-a-week.
Dr. Archelle Georgiou:
Are they more likely to be available in breast centers?
Dr. Kevin Kelly:
That’s where they would be is in breast centers.
Dr. Archelle Georgiou:
Okay, so could you address then the question of when and whether a woman should have an MRI?
Dr. Kevin Kelly:
MRIs are approved for high-risk women. They are about five times as expensive as a breast ultrasound and so, if their insurances pay for the MRI, it’s kind of why not? If their insurance will not pay for it the ultrasound probably works pretty close to as well. We don’t know that absolutely for sure because we haven’t done as many of these.
Dr. Archelle Georgiou:
Okay, so are there any published studies on comparing ultrasound to the MRI?
Dr. Kevin Kelly:
No, we have a published, well, not the automated ultrasound. We have a published study on automated ultrasounds mammograms where we have doubled the number of cancers found in dense breasts. We have tripled the number of small cancers in dense breast.
Dr. Archelle Georgiou:
Okay, and then finally, let’s end on a note, I have come from the world of managed care and insurance, so do insurance companies pay for breast ultrasounds? I know that some may or may not pay for MRI, what’s your experience been?
Dr. Kevin Kelly:
Generally speaking, for a whole breast ultrasound they really do not pay. They pay for focal ultrasounds where you know where the mass is, which is a much simpler test and really they don’t pay either for the handheld or the automated.
Dr. Archelle Georgiou:
And if a woman just wanted to just get it anyway and pay out of pocket.
Dr. Kevin Kelly:
Somewhere around $300.
Dr. Archelle Georgiou:
About $300, okay. Well thank you so much. It’s such important information. It’s important for all of you to know that when you get your mammogram and the doctor tells you it is normal, that’s not where the discussion should end. You should ask more questions and based on this discussion you should ask whether or not you have dense breasts and whether or not there’s a follow up study that will help you make absolutely sure that you are protecting yourself against breast cancer.
Thank you very much for joining us.
Dr. Kevin Kelly:
Thank you very much.
Dr. Archelle Georgiou:
Thank you.
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Add a Comment1 Comments
The automated breast ultrasound that Dr. Kevin Kelly was referring to is SonoCine. There are presently 15 locations across the country that offer this exam. This exam finds small invasive caners that are missed by mammography particularly, in dense breasted women. For more information as to what SonoCine is and where you can have this exam, visit www.sonocine.com or call 775-851-7474 . There is a video of the actual exam, on the website.
December 6, 2010 - 9:40amThis Comment