Breast Gel SEATTLE, Wash. (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Mammograms are considered the most effective way right now to screen for breast cancer. But for younger women the test can leave them with unanswered questions because the cancer is harder to separate from healthy tissue. Here's a new gel that may clear up the confusion. Jody Shuger works hard at staying fit. And with her job, looking great is a requirement. She says, "Right now I do some part-time modeling. Sports modeling, not your regular typical, editorial high-fashion. Five years ago, Shuger found a lump in her breast. "I wasn't really a candidate for a mammogram because my doctor said she wouldn't be able to see it, read it on the mammogram because breast tissue is so dense, it just shows up white on the film," she says. Radiologist Connie Lehman, M.D., says dense breasts often make reading mammograms difficult. Cancer appears as white spots. "Those white splotches on a dense mammogram, the density is also white on the X-ray, it's looking for a needle in a haystack," Dr. Lehman, Associate Professor of Radiology at the University of Washington School of Medicine and Director of Breast Imaging at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. Shuger is part a new study of a gel version of tamoxifen. Research shows women taking the pill form of tamoxifen have less density in their breasts. So for the next six months, Shuger will rub the gel on her breasts once a day. Cancer researcher Anne McTiernan, M.D., Ph.D., also of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, tells Ivanhoe, "In preliminary studies, it hasn't been shown to have any of the adverse effects, and so we really think it's very safe and hopefully effective medication but we're testing that." Shuger's lump turned out to be non-cancerous. She hopes the gel will help her avoid another scare. The gel study is underway at four medical centers. They are the New Mexico Clinical Research and Osteoporosis Center in Albuquerque, Access Clinical Trials in Nashville, Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. If you would like more information, please contact: Besins International U.S. Inc. info@besinsgroup.com Remember we are NOT Doctors and have NO medical training. This site is like an Encylopedia - there are many pages, many links on many topics. Support our work with any size DONATION - see left side of any page - for how to donate. You can help raise awareness of CAM.