What Young Women Need to Know About Breast Cancer

BettyConfidential and Susan G. Komen for the Cure are working together to get the word out about the realities of breast cancer and young women. We need your help!

-The Betty Editors

You probably know the scary statistic – one in every eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer. What you may not know, however, is that while doctors often don’t start mammograms for women before the age of 40, young women do get breast cancer, and when they do it’s often more aggressive and less responsive to hormone therapies.

While rare, the numbers are not insignificant:

• 24,000 women under age 45 will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year.

• That means nearly 10 percent of women diagnosed with breast cancer this year will be 45 or younger. [FYI, this includes both invasive and in situ cases]

• There are more than 250,000 survivors under age 40 currently living in the U.S. – many of whom were diagnosed in their 20s.