A major US study found diagnoses of stage 4 breast cancer – when the disease has already spread around the body and can no longer be cured – climbed nearly 18 percent over the last decade. The steepest increases were seen in women under 40, despite breast cancer traditionally being far more common in older patients.
A mysterious surge in incurable breast cancer among younger women has sparked alarm among experts. A major US study found diagnoses of stage 4 breast cancer – when the disease has already spread around the body and can no longer be cured – climbed nearly 18 percent over the last decade.
The steepest increases were seen in women under 40, despite breast cancer traditionally being far more common in older patients. Researchers were particularly concerned by a rapid rise in triple-negative tumours – one of the deadliest and hardest-to-treat forms of the disease, which kills nine in 10 patients once diagnosed at stage 4. Changes in screening, obesity, women having children later in life, and exposure to hormone-disrupting chemicals found in plastics have all been suggested as possible factors.
Breast cancer experts have urged more research into the causes of the rise, warning that much about the trend remains unknown. The new study, published in JAMA Network Open, analyzed data from 761,471 breast cancer patients between 2010 and 2021. Of those patients, 43,934 – roughly five percent – had stage 4 cancer at the time of diagnosis.
The researchers found the rate of stage 4 breast cancer diagnoses increased from 9.5 cases per 100,000 women in 2010 to 11.2 per 100,000 in 2021 – an average annual rise of 1.2 percent. But the increases were far sharper among younger women. Patients under 40 saw diagnoses climb by 3.1 percent every year – nearly three times the overall rate. The researchers also found triple-negative breast cancers rose by an average of 2.7 percent annually.
Though men account for only a small percentage of breast cancer cases, the study also found stage 4 diagnoses in men rose 3.7 percent annually between 2010 and 2021. Overall, stage 4 diagnoses rose from 5.6 percent of all breast cancer cases in 2010 to six percent in 2021. Several possible factors may be contributing to the increase, including later pregnancies, rising obesity rates, and exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals found in plastics
Breast Cancer Younger Women Stage 4 Triple-Negative Tumours Hormone-Disrupting Chemicals Plastics Later Pregnancies Rising Obesity Rates Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals
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