Jennifer Matthews: Jody Shuger works hard at staying fit. And with her job, looking great is a requirement.
Jody Shuger: I do some part-time modeling. Sports modeling, not your regular typical, editorial high-fashion.
Jennifer Matthews: Five years ago, Shuger found a lump in her breast.
Jody Shuger: 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, says dense breasts often make reading mammograms difficult. Cancer appears as white spots.
Dr. Connie Lehman: 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.
Jennifer Matthews: Jody 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, Jody will rub the gel on her breasts once a day.
Dr. Anne McTiernan: 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.
Jennifer Matthews: Shuger's lump turned out to be non-cancerous. She hopes the gel will help her avoid another scare. This is Jennifer Matthews reporting.
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