Losquadro: We Passed Important Women’s Health Initiative

This session in Albany, I joined my fellow lawmakers in making women’s health a top priority with the passage of Assembly bill 9586.  I was proud to be a sponsor of this bill, which requires mammogram providers to give written notice to patients of the presence of dense breast tissue, which can mask potentially cancerous breast lumps.

The measure revises the state’s public health law so that women with dense breast tissue are aware additional screening may be recommended.  While dense breast tissue is very common and not an abnormality, it does lower the accuracy of mammogram detection of tumors by about half.  Extra screening, such as ultrasound, can double the chance of tumor detection.

As a son and a husband, I think this is a very important bill for the health and well-being of women.  In the United States, one woman dies of breast cancer every 13 minutes.  If we can do something to provide a greater chance of preventing breast cancer, we need to do it.

Dense breast tissue can increase a woman’s chances of breast cancer two to six times and 40 percent of women have dense breast tissue.  In fact, women with dense breast tissue are at greater risk of developing breast cancer than those with a family history of the illness.

Follow up studies on a similar Connecticut law passed in 2009 found the extra screening doubled tumor detection rates.  In New York, that would mean detecting at least 2,000 more potentially cancerous tumors a year, and vastly increasing the chances of treating the cancer. Detecting breast cancer early means improved survivability rates, shortened treatment times and greater health-cost savings.

The United States has some of the best health care in the world, and every woman in New York deserves to live their life free from the fear of breast cancer.  This legislation ensures the women of New York have every opportunity to live a fuller and healthier life.