Munson Healthcare’s (MHC) High-Risk Breast Cancer Clinic at the Cowell Family Cancer Center in Traverse City is bringing a new resource to northern Michigan focused on earlier detection and intervention for those with an elevated risk for developing breast cancer.
As part of this initiative, MHC radiology reports now include a personalized lifetime breast cancer risk score — based on personal, medical, and family history factors — for every patient following a screening mammogram. Standing conditional orders have now been added to mammograms for any patient identified as high-risk— with calculated score that indicates a risk of 20% or higher — to simplify the referral process for advanced imaging or further testing, like MRIs.
“Historically, northern Michigan has had a higher-thanaverage rate of breast cancer in some cases 20% higher than the national average,” said Kathy LaRaia, Munson Healthcare Vice President of Oncology and Professional Services. “We estimate that there are approximately 6,000 patients in our region who would be considered highrisk and could benefit from this program.”
