Breast cancer in women under 40 on rise

Breast cancer in women under 40 on rise

Oncologists say incidence of breast cancer in young women is steadily rising. Though according to scientific journals only 5% to 7% of women under the age of 40 suffer from breast cancer, oncologists here say the incidence could be as high as 15% to 20%.

Dr P Guhan, oncologist at Sri Ramakrishna Medical Hospital, says breast cancer continues to be the most common kind of cancer among women.

It accounts for around 26.1% of the cancer cases among women in Coimbatore. However, the alarming factor is that at least 15% of them occur in women under 40. "Now we see women coming in their late twenties and thirties with breast cancer," says Dr Guhan. "They usually settle down late and decide to have a child in their thirties. Within a couple of years, they come in with cancer," he adds. Dr Prasanth Ganesan, assistant professor of medical oncology at Cancer Institute, says, "We are seeing an increase in younger cancer patients. We are seeing many 30year-olds with breast cancer now."

Doctors say the days of recommending a mammogram once a year only after a woman touches the age of 40 are almost gone. "Now we advise even younger women to look for lumps in their breasts and visit a doctor immediately," he says.

Breast cancer is more difficult to detect in younger women because they have dense breasts. "By the time a young woman detects a lump in her breast, the cancer is often at an advanced stage," says an article on Breast Cancer in Young women, published by the online health website Web MD.

"Often the mammography fails to pick up lumps in 30year-olds because they have dense breasts. It works most accurately with women above the age of 50 because their breast density goes down and fat density increases," says Dr Vijayakumar, oncologist at KG Hospitals.

Experts are yet to ascertain why younger women are falling victim to breast cancer, although they have noticed some patterns in their occurrence.

"Many young women suffering from cancer come from families where there is a history of cancer," says Dr Vijayakumar. "It's a demographic observation, but we haven't been able to figure out a reason for it yet," says Dr V Sridevi, professor of Surgical Oncology, Cancer Institute.

Doctors suspect that improved diagnosis and the increasing population could have something to do with this.

"It could also be because of more awareness and better diagnostic facilities. India has a younger population when compared to the West, so it may look like many 30 and 40-yearolds are suffering from cancer," says Dr Ganesan. Cervical cancer which was the most common kind of cancer earlier is now more common in rural areas, while breast cancer is more common in urban areas.