Younger women should pay more attention to possible signs of breast cancer, as more than 30 percent of new cases in Taiwan in 2017 were found in women aged below 50, the Taiwan Breast Cancer Society said on Oct 13.
Younger women who have not entered menopause have increasingly been diagnosed with breast cancer in the past few years, society chairman Tseng Ling-Ming (曾令民) said, citing Taiwan Cancer Registry data.
In 2017, the number of younger women diagnosed with breast cancer was 20 percent higher than in 2013, he said.
Clinical experience and data show that breast cancer in younger women often involves bigger and higher-grade tumors, with 7 percent of younger women diagnosed with breast cancer for the first time found to develop late-stage breast cancer, Tseng said.
Although breast cancer is the most frequent cancer among women in Taiwan, many younger women do not know that they are at risk, he said, adding that it is also more difficult for them to notice the indicators, such as lumps, as younger women have denser breasts, meaning more breast tissue than fat tissue.
Clinical studies at Taipei Veterans General Hospital show that if breast cancer patients are younger than 35, they are four to five times more at risk of the cancer spreading to other organs including the brain, Tseng said.
However, breast cancer treatment in Taiwan has seen significant improvement in the past two years, as doctors are deploying more effective treatment methods based on the type, stage and grade of tumors, he said.
A wide range of treatment and prevention for breast cancer is available, including hormone, ovarian suppression and targeted therapies, as well as chemotherapy, immunotherapy and genetic tests, he added.
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