October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Young women CAN and DO get breast cancer. It is estimated that more than 250,000 women diagnosed with breast cancer at age 40 or younger are living in the U.S. today. While breast cancer in young women accounts for a small percentage of all breast cancer cases, the impact of the disease is significant.

Studies show that Advance Breast Cancer is becoming more common in younger women…New research finds almost a tripling of advanced or metastatic breast cancer among women ages 25 to 39 between 1976 and 2009. -Women with no history of breast cancer will not get their 1st Mammogram until age 40…Should these young women be encouraged to get mammograms earlier than 40 even if there is no family history of breast cancer?

The results are potentially worrisome because young women’s tumors tend to be more aggressive than older women’s, and they’re much less likely to get routine screening for the disease. In the United States, the incidence of breast cancer with distant involvement at diagnosis increased in W25-39-year-old women 1976- 2009. No other age group or extent-of-disease subgroup of the same age range had a similar increase. For 25- to 39-year-olds, there was an increased incidence in distant disease among all races and ethnicities evaluated, especially non-Hispanic white and African American, and this occurred in both metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas. The incidence of women with estrogen receptor-positive subtypes increased more than for women with estrogen receptor-negative subtypes.