(HorizonPost.com) – While the breast cancer rate continues to slowly increase each year, especially among younger women, advances both in diagnostics and the treatment of breast cancer have given patients a far better prognosis than ever before, The Hill reported.
Women diagnosed with both early-stage and metastatic breast cancer have benefited from medical advances including personalized screening recommendations, rapid drug development, targeted therapies, and a host of new treatments like immunotherapies.
Oncologist Elizabeth Comen from New York’s Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center told The Hill that oncologists are able to offer breast cancer patients more personalized and individualized treatments today.
Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer in women, accounting for 31 percent of all cancer diagnoses among women, according to the American Cancer Society. In 2023 alone, close to 300,000 women will likely receive a breast cancer diagnosis, and of those, around 43,000 will likely die from the disease.
In recent years, declines in mortality have slowed while rates of breast cancer diagnoses have increased by about 0.5 percent each year since the mid-2000s.
The increase in diagnoses is partly due to several factors, particularly the increase in women suffering from obesity, bearing fewer children, or waiting until after 30 to bear their first child, according to the American Cancer Society. Lower rates of breast cancer screenings could also contribute to the increase.
While it is rare for women under 40 to receive a breast cancer diagnosis, it is still the leading cause of cancer deaths among women ages 20 to 49, and diagnoses among younger women are increasing.
A recent study published in JAMA Network Open found that all cancers are rising among younger women, especially those women younger than 50.
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