Younger Women Also At Risk of Breast Cancer

By Vera Viner

While we are used to middle-aged women and elderly women being diagnosed with breast cancer, this disease doesn’t ONLY target people in this age group. There are much younger women and girls who have had to battle this disease and come out on the other side. Fox News reported that 14-year-old Ashley is a breast cancer survivor who was diagnosed just before Christmas in 2012.

While playing basketball, she was hit in the chest and a significant pain led her to a clinic where it was discovered that she had a tumor in her right breast. Three months ago, Ashley had a mastectomy to the right side of her chest.

Ashley’s mother also underwent treatment for breast cancer when she was 34 years of age. The genetic link between mother and daughter shows that this disease strongly impacts their family history.

“It was horrifying, knowing that I have given it to my daughter. She’s going to have to go through everything too,” the mother told the news source.  ”Most children, I don’t believe, would have come through it strong as she has. She has influenced a lot of people more than she could know.”

In February 2013, The New York Times reported that advanced breast cancer diagnosis has slightly increased among women between age 25 to 39. The researchers of this study focused on analysing the available statistics between 1976 to 2009. The reason this finding is significant is because the breast cancer diagnosed among these women had already metastasized to the liver, lungs, or nearby organs. This greatly decreases the victims’ chance of survival.

“Breast cancer can and does occur in younger women,” Dr. Rebecca Johnson, the author of the study and medical director of the adolescent and young adult oncology program at Seattle Children’s Hospital, told the news source. “[However,] We’re certainly not advocating that young women get mammography at an earlier age than is generally specified.”

Instead, doctors urge young women to see their doctors if they notice a lump, pain or other changes in the breast. Even if you do not have any family history, breast cancer can and does affect young women as well as old. While breast cancer does not affect nearly as many younger women, it tends to be more aggressive in the younger generations. If you are a younger woman, make sure to participate in monthly self-exams and get yearly breast exams provided by your primary care doctor.