DENVER — October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and Colorado doctors are highlighting a concerning trend: More younger women are being diagnosed with the disease.
A local breast cancer surgeon with HCA HealthOne said the average age of diagnosis in the U.S. is the mid-60s, but the number of women under 40 finding out they have cancer is increasing by 1.5% to 2.5% each year in some parts of the country. Doctors have been noticing this trend since 2012.
"The average age of getting diagnosed with breast cancer in the United States is 62 to 64, that's kind of the rough age range," said Dr. Kayla Griffith with HCA HealthOne. "So we're seeing a larger number of patients that are young, under the age of 40, right around their 40s, in their 30s and even in their 20s, getting diagnosed with breast cancer."
The impact is different for younger patients.
Patients will talk about how they "just started my career, I just got a new job, I just got engaged, I haven't even thought about kids yet," Griffith said, describing conversations she's had with younger patients.
For mothers with small children, typically women in their 30s and early 40s, the reaction is often: "Oh my gosh, how am I going to take care of my kids?" Griffith said.
"You didn't ask for this. You know, that's the biggest take home," she told Denver7 about the message she tells her patients. "We are where we are. You didn't do anything to cause it. We're going to get you through it."
She also said younger patients all of a sudden face the question about freezing eggs because of the side effects of some treatments and how expensive that can be.
"When you look at the population under the age of 40, most women don't start mammograms until they're 40 years old, without having a family history of breast cancer, without having, a lump bump or breast pain, things like that," said Dr. Griffith.
As a result, she said a lot of the younger women catch the cancer later on when it's progressed more.
The big question is, why this is happening? Researchers are looking into everything from lifestyle factors to inflammation, processed foods, alcohol and smoking.
"I wouldn't say it's the most common diagnosis," said Dr. Griffith. "You know, that little stack of number is rising. I don't know that it's necessarily changing as far as increased number of diagnoses of women in their 60s, that's about, you know, that's pretty similar," said Griffith.
Griffith's key takeaway is for women to take time to care for themselves and not put off getting things checked.
"Pay attention to yourself and really advocate for yourself. Because, again, I think we as women, we get so used to taking care of everyone else but ourselves. And the thing is, if you can't take care of yourself, you can't take care of other people," she said.
Dr. Griffith also emphasized that treatments have come a long way and that the earlier the cancer is caught the better.
"We've advanced treatment and technology so much with breast cancer because it is so heavily researched that even the treatments are more you know, we got increased survivals and decreased recurrences," said Griffith.
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