Explainer: What kinds of breast cancer risk screenings are available in western Pennsylvania?

PITTSBURGH — When you look at the average risk of any woman contracting breast cancer, it’s roughly 12%, but for some, it’s much higher.

“With breast cancer, I was diagnosed at 33 years old after the year prior being told I was too young to have breast cancer,” said Maria Costa who’s an AHN patient.

It’s a similar story for actress Olivia Munn. She’s going viral this week after posting that she had a clear mammogram only to get diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer two months later.

The difference that she said caught it all was her doctor did a breast cancer risk assessment.

“Tools that can be done in any primary care office, any OB-GYN office, you can find them easily online. It looks at what an individual woman’s risk is both over the next five years and their lifetime,” said Dr. Shannon Puhalla who’s a breast oncologist at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center.

It factors in age, family and medical history. If your risk is more than 20% that’s when you need to be concerned and go for extra testing and screenings.

“Once that’s documented in the medical record. Insurance that’s kind of their magic number 20% or higher of lifetime risk that’s when they start covering things like MRI, consults to genetics,” said Dr. Emil Fernando, the AHN Breast Surgical Oncologist.

Many women told Channel 11 they never even knew it was an option.

“That’s something I wish I had the opportunity to do when I was worried about cancer in 2021 before I was diagnosed that that was an option for me. It really needs to be standard practice,” Costa said.

Typically, these conversations aren’t happening until women get mammograms at 40. It’s something Dr. Fernando thinks should happen much earlier, but patients may just need to advocate for themselves.

“It’s not hard to do, it just takes a little time and knowing your family history and personal history to do this. I think women 25 to 30 years old should start having this assessment done,” Fernando said.

Fernando recommends getting this assessment updated every few years as your factors and family history change year to year.

If you want to take the test for yourself, click here, but it’s always recommended to do it with your doctor as they can help with the next steps if you are at risk.

There are also options in our area for programs with different healthcare providers when it comes to assessing and prevention programs.

• UPMC programs
• AHN services
• St. Clair Breast Cancer Center

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