Dr. Nancy Cappello, Dense Breast Advocate and Founder of Are You Dense, Inc., has died

She has empowered women across America to actively seek and receive better screening and diagnostic testing in order to detect breast cancer at its earliest stages. “I am on a quest to expose this best-kept secret of dense breast tissue to ensure that women with dense breast tissue receive screening and diagnostic measures to find cancer at its earliest stage — isn’t that the purpose of screening programs?” she wrote on the AreYouDense website. 

Her research across the U.S. has clearly demonstrated that most women want to know their breast tissue type and how to receive the best personalised care and screening. Her latest survey, which was conducted in February 2018 and included 1,500 women aged 40-74 from all 50 states who had had a mammogram within the past two years, found that nearly 90% of women surveyed, regardless of the state’s law status, completely or mostly agree that they would prefer to know their breast tissue type than not know.

Not only has Nancy helped raise greater public awareness of the connection between breast tissue density and cancer risk, but she has also supported research aimed at the prevention and treatment of breast cancer and the screening risks of dense breast tissue. 

She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004 and underwent aggressive chemotherapy at the time, only to succumb yesterday to the side effects of her treatment. 

Nancy continues to be an inspiration worldwide and will continue to motivate others to root for better density reporting and education access to multimodal screening in order to prevent advanced disease and premature death. On behalf of HealthManagement.org. we extend our condolences to her family, friends and colleagues.