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Why are more and more young women being affected by breast cancer?

Why are more and more young women being affected by breast cancer?

A new report shows a significant increase in the number of American women under 50 diagnosed with cancer. Experts point to several possible reasons. One is that: The rise in breast cancer among younger patients is happening as the incidence of other cancers that strike at a younger age — including colorectal, stomach, kidney and liver cancer — is also rising. So patients are being diagnosed with all types of cancer today, more than ever before.

Younger breast cancer patients are more likely than older patients to have aggressive forms of the disease.

Siobhan Donovan was an athlete, ate vegetables, didn't smoke, and only drank alcohol when she went out with friends. She had no family history of cancer. When she felt a lump in her breast near the end of her third pregnancy, she and her doctors didn't expect anything serious.

They were wrong. Donovan, who was 33 at the time, had metastatic breast cancer that had spread to her bones.

"I was really in shock," she said, adding that at the time she didn't even know the meaning of the word "metastasis."

Like Donovan, a growing number of young women are being diagnosed with breast cancer, according to new estimates released by the American Cancer Society.

Between 2012 and 2021, the overall breast cancer incidence rate increased by about 1 percent each year, while the incidence rate in women under age 50 increased by about 1.4 percent each year. Younger patients with breast cancer — typically diagnosed before age 40 — are more likely than older patients to have aggressive forms of the disease, said Dr. Ann Partridge, interim chairman of medical oncology at Dana.

However, cancer incidence under the age of 50 remains lower compared to older ages.

In 2024, there were just under 51,000 new cases of breast cancer among women under 50, compared with about 260,000 cases among women 50 and older, according to statistics from the American Cancer Society.