Breast Cancer Continues to Rise Among Younger Women, Study Finds

October 1, 2024

Image from a mammogram

(New York Times) – Death rates are declining among U.S. women with breast cancer. But the disease is turning up more often in women under age 50.

Rates of breast cancer — the second leading cause of cancer deaths in U.S. women — climbed by 1 percent a year from 2012 to 2021, and even more sharply among women under age 50 and among Asian American/Pacific Islander women of all ages, according to an American Cancer Society report published on Tuesday.

The biennial report is among the most comprehensive and detailed studies of breast cancer occurrence over recent years. One in 50 U.S. women will develop invasive breast cancer by the age of 50, the authors said, based on National Cancer Institute calculations. (Read More)