Breast cancer is rising among U.S. young women even as deaths drop: study

According to the study released Tuesday, breast cancer incidence has been rising by one per cent each year between 2012 and 2021, with the increase faster in those under 50.

The number of deaths from breast cancer is on the decline, but new data out of the U.S. shows the prevalence of cases among women under 50 years of age is rising.

That has advocates for breast cancer screening once again urging change in Canada.

The study, published in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians on Tuesday, found the number of deaths declined by 44 per cent between 1989 and 2022.

“I think that’s amazing,” Kimberly Carson, CEO of Breast Cancer Canada, told Global News. “That’s why we work as hard as we do in research to be able to change those statistics.”

There were roughly 518,000 fewer deaths overall during that time span, though it notes certain demographics have not seen the same decline. American Indian/Alaska Native women saw no reduction in mortality, while Black women have a 38 per cent higher mortality than white women, despite a five per cent lower incidence rate.

In fact, the study notes this group has the lowest survival rate of any racial and ethnic group for every breast cancer subtype and stage of the disease, except for the “localized-stage,” at which they are 10 per cent less likely than white women to be diagnosed.

Even with these discrepancies, however, the study says the decrease in the number of deaths overall is in large part due to advances in treatment and earlier detection through screening.

“The sooner that we catch it, the better the outcome,” Carson said. “Certainly screening is obviously a huge, huge priority because we can catch it at Stage 0, Stage 1 … your chance of surviving breast cancer is almost 100 per cent.”