According to the American Cancer Society (ACS), nearly 300,000 US women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in 2022, making breast cancer the most prevalent form of cancer for women.1 Volpara Health isn’t just sitting by. We’re taking action. We are dedicated to developing personalized solutions intended to benefit women and their breast health by improving earlier detection.
Promoting awareness
Many women are unaware of their breast density and its impact on being able to see cancers on a mammogram, but also its significance as a risk factor for breast cancer.2,3 Volpara recently developed a patient-facing webpage to help women understand their breast density. To further empower women to be more breast aware, our Patient Hub™ customers will soon be able to include the Volpara Density Profile™ – images of a patient’s own mammogram – on their radiology report letters. Seeing their own images in the context of their mammography reports could help patients better understand breast density and breast cancer risk, as well as any clinical recommendations such as supplemental screening.
High quality mammograms
Women deserve the best chance of early cancer detection from their mammogram. Our Volpara Analytics™ software helps breast centers monitor and optimize the mammography breast positioning, compression, and dose quality across their technologists. In addition to displaying breast positioning quality scores, our Volpara Live™ software reports compression pressure metrics that take into account a woman’s actual breast size. Image quality metrics provide on-the-job training to help technologists take high quality mammograms.
Personalized risk pathways
Across the globe, breast cancer risk assessment is increasingly being recommended for women who aren’t yet of screening age. This is an important development given the rising rate of advanced stage breast cancer in younger women.4 It is especially important for African American/Black women, who tend to be diagnosed more frequently with aggressive breast cancers and at younger ages.5 Younger and older women alike are better able to manage their breast cancer risk if they receive a risk assessment. Our Risk Pathways™ platform provides personalized risk assessment tools, including the latest Tyrer-Cuzick/IBIS breast cancer risk model that incorporates breast density. Helping health care providers (HCPs) find the best screening pathway tailored to individual women’s risk for breast cancer, whether it be masking, lifetime or shorter-term (5- or 10-year), or hereditary risks, will ultimately lead to earlier cancer detection.
Volpara’s suite of innovative software products are developed with women first and foremost in mind. We’re here to support health care professionals and screening facilities better manage prevention and screening pathways for women. Many breast cancer deaths are preventable, but far too many women continue to be diagnosed at a late stage. Volpara will continue our mission to personalize screening and increase early detection to save more families from cancer.
References:
1. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35020204/
2. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17229950/
3. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16775176/
4. https://pubs.rsna.org/doi/abs/10.1148/radiol.2021203476
5. https://www.cancer.org/content/dam/cancer-org/research/cancer-facts-and-statistics/annual-cancer-facts-and-figures/2022/2022-cancer-facts-and-figures.pdf
