Provided by the Young Survival Coalition (www.youngsurvival.org)
Despite the prevailing opinion that young women don’t get breast cancer, the reality is that they can and they do. In fact, one in every 229 women between the ages of 30 and 39 will be diagnosed with breast cancer within the next 10 years1. Following are some additional facts about breast cancer in young women:
- Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in young women ages 15–542.
- More than 11,100 women under age 40 will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year, and more than 1,100 will die3.
- There are over 250,000 women in the United States who were diagnosed with breast cancer at or before the age of 404.
- Young women’s cancers are generally more aggressive and result in lower survival rates.
- The five-year survival rate for young women with breast cancer is 82 percent, which is lower than their post-menopausal counterparts5.
- Young women with breast cancer struggle with many issues that their post-menopausal counterparts don’t face, including: the possibility of early menopause, pregnancy after diagnosis, generally more advanced cancers at diagnosis, and higher mortality rates.
- Because the incidence of breast cancer is much lower in younger than in older women, young women are an underrepresented population in many research studies.
1 NCI, SEER data updated 4/05
2 National Cancer Institute 2005 Fact Book
3 American Cancer Society Breast Cancer Facts and Figures 2005-2006
4 Figure based on the 2000 U.S. Census data
5 American Cancer Society Breast Cancer Facts and Figures 2005-2006
6 American Cancer Society Breast Cancer Facts and Figures 2005-2006
