KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Part of new guidance out in the last year from the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force states all women at average risk of breast cancer should start getting mammograms at age 40.
Recommendation: Breast Cancer: Screening | United States Preventive Services Taskforce
A doctor at The University of Kansas Cancer Center says you should talk to your doctor and assess your lifetime risk by your mid-twenties.
While getting diagnosed with breast cancer before 50 is still rare, Kansas City mom Alex Owens was diagnosed in her 30s.
Owens said she was never planning to wait until she turned 40 for a mammogram because she had two aunts who faced breast cancer.
“I had planned on 35 as the age that I was gonna go have my first mammogram, have that discussion with my OB," Owens said. "That was the plan and then everything came crashing down."
Owens said she found something troubling two years ago.
"I was brushing my teeth and just feeling around because I know that I need to be doing that, need to be checking on myself and things like that, and I felt something…and I immediately had this visceral reaction and I started to cry,” she said.
Owens, then 33, called her doctor and went to get checked.
“I made the mistake of going in alone. I don’t recommend that,” she said. "The doctor comes in and says, ‘I’m so sorry, you’ve got cancer.'" And I was like, you know, I start crying because all I can think about is it can’t be me, you’re wrong," Owens said.
“I have a three-year-old and a one-year-old, how? I’m 33?” she said about what was racing through her mind. With her medical team, she said she decided to get a double mastectomy.
She said her diagnosis was still a shock as a mom of two in her early thirties, even with her family history.
“They (her aunts) were also in their 50s when they were diagnosed, you know, like early 50s, and both of them had different risk factors that I didn’t necessarily have. Smoking their whole lives, right? I never smoked.”
Owens was not alone.
I reached out to the University of Kansas Cancer Center and they told me in 2023, 110 of their female patients with breast cancer were 40 or younger.
“And to put that in perspective, that represented 7.1% of the entire group of patients diagnosed with breast cancer, so still a minority,” said Dr. Allison Aripoli at the University of Kansas Cancer Center.
Looking back over the last five years, they have consistently seen dozens of breast cancer patients each year 40 and younger. In 2022, they found 97 of their 1,470 female breast cancer patients were 40 or younger.
The Breast Cancer Research Foundation told me the median age for a breast cancer diagnosis is 62, but that data shows rising rates among women younger than 50.
While still relatively rare, they called it an alarming trend.
Facts About Breast Cancer in Young Women| Breast Cancer Research Foundation
The American Cancer Society’s 2024 report shows while breast cancer mortality rates have fallen 44% since 1989, women under 50 faced a steeper increase in diagnoses from 2012-2021.
Breast cancer diagnoses were up overall 1% per year from 2012-2021.
Breast cancer for women older than 50 was up 0.7% per year from 2012-2021.
Breast cancer incidence for women younger than 50 was up 1.4% per year from 2012-2021.
“You know, the actual cause for why we’re seeing an increase in younger women being diagnosed with breast cancer isn’t known,” said Dr. Aripoli.
A spokesperson for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation agreed while we don’t know exactly why, there are some theories.
The current hypotheses include population-wide trends such as the rise of overweight and obese women, the increasingly lower age for the onset of menses, and the later age of pregnancy, according to the spokesperson.
“Three people that I know personally in my close life under the age of 35 were diagnosed in the last year,” Owens said.
After chemotherapy, when only close friends and family knew, Owens decided to start sharing her journey on social media.
“I struggled to find people to relate to," she said. "I remember being diagnosed and being like, all I know are older people. I can’t relate to that. I can’t relate to being diagnosed in your 50s and 60s. I have little kids, like I have little kids. I have a baby. I couldn’t pick up my kids for six weeks after my surgery and I had a one-year-old.”
Dr. Aripoli said women should start by talking to their doctor and getting a risk assessment by age 25.
“If someone is by that calculated model noted to have a 20% or greater lifetime risk, screening mammograms should start at the age of 30 and those patients may also qualify for annual breast MRI starting between the ages of 25 and 30,” said Dr. Aripoli.
Owens plans to continue sharing her journey she said is never truly over.
“I couldn’t find anybody that I related to going through it," she said. "So I would love to be that person, that somebody can relate to and to say, ‘Ok, she did it. I can do it."'
The Breast Cancer Research Foundation also pointed out that data shows disparities in different racial groups, saying in part, “Black women are 38% more likely to die from breast cancer than white women, even though the overall rates of breast cancer diagnosis are slightly lower in black women.”
Dr. Aripoli also said to make sure you know your risk and talk to your doctor to get a risk assessment by age 25, to continue to be your own advocate.
She said you should know your breast tissue and if something feels off or different, talk to your doctor.
