DMN: Besides notifying the woman that she has dense breasts, do you think there's any other information the letter should include, or should it just say to talk to your doctor for more information?
RF: It should say talk to your doctor for more information. Because, ultimately, there are always many different factors involved here. There's what we would call an index of suspicions. It could be family history, it might be the palpation of a lump, it might be some symptoms. It's very difficult for a letter to take all of this into account.

DMN: Are there any other issues surrounding breast cancer that you think are worth mentioning?
RF: It certainly is the case that the industry has been innovating for dose reduction for many years. I'll try to avoid speaking of specific products. It's not only Siemens. The industry has been working hard not only to make imaging more effective in detecting lumps and assessing whether they're benign or cancerous, and then directing biopsy needles and all the various roles that imaging plays in making sure women get the best care, including staging for nodes and following up on treatment. In addition to all of those efficacy roles, there always is the safety issue. Dose reduction is something the industry takes seriously, and I could point to any number of innovations as part of the standard mammogram as well as downstream, which reduces exposure as part of the standard mammogram. PET scanning for scanning of metastases and so on.

DMN: Any final thoughts?
RF: It's crucial that people like you keep this in the news, because FDA will be coming out in December with this proposed language. We need to show that incorporating notification into federal standard is seen to have value despite the fact that various states have made their efforts. There's a qualitative enhancement of the effectiveness of this notification if it is unified and at the federal level.

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