Breast cancer deaths in the US are falling, but younger women are being diagnosed more often β study
A new report from the American Cancer Society (ACS) shows that breast cancer deaths have fallen dramatically since 1989, likely preventing more than 517,900 deaths.
However, the report also shows that younger women are increasingly diagnosed with the disease, a worrying finding that reflects an increase in the rates of colorectal and pancreatic cancer.
βThe numbers are not dramatically different, but the strongest increase is among women under the age of 50,β the report said. Dr. William Dahutchief scientific officer for ACS.
Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in American women after skin cancer, and remains a disease of aging. In 2024, an estimated 310,720 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed in women, and more than 42,000 women are expected to die from the disease. Although rare, men can also be diagnosed with breast cancer; it is estimated that 2,790 will be diagnosed and 530 will die.
The majority of diagnoses and deaths occur in people over 50 years of age more than half of all deaths are expected to occur in women over the age of 70, the report shows. Nevertheless, the rise in premature cancer rates is an area of ββurgent research.
βThe reasons for this increase remain unknown,β a group of researchers from Harvard, Washington University and Japan recently wrote in the journal Nature.
βBut plausible hypotheses include greater exposure to potential risk factors, such as a Western diet, obesity, physical inactivity, and antibiotic use, especially during the early prenatal to adolescent stages of life.β
Dahut reiterated the hypothesis that cancer at a young age could be linked to obesity, saying there was a growing consensus that obesity could lead to cancer more quickly than other known risk factors, such as smoking.
At the same time, Dahut expressed his hope for new GLP-1 weight loss drugs: βIf we can figure out a way to reduce obesity in this country, whether that’s largely based on diet, a combination of diet and therapies, it will lead to less cancer.β
The ACS report also highlighted persistent cancer disparities among Americans. Death rates for American Indian and Alaska Native women have barely increased over the past three decades, even as breast cancer survival rates for Americans in general have improved. Black women also continue to have a higher mortality rate than their white peers. Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among Spanish women.
Asian American and Pacific Islanders have experienced higher incidence increases over the past decade, increasing between 2.5 and 2.7% per year, as have younger white women, rising 1.4% per year for those younger than 50 years.
ACS releases a report on breast cancer every two years, leading up to Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October. The report combines data from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
These two federal research centers house the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results Program, or the Seer Program (under NCI), which focuses on population-based data on cancer incidence and mortality, and the National Program of Cancer Registries (under CDC), where Short-term incidence trends are derived by race, ethnicity, age, state, cancer stage, and molecular subtype. The organization also published its findings in CA: A cancer journal for physiciansthe peer-reviewed journal of ACS.