| Although many people believe that young women | | | | The drug Tamoxifen is an example of a drug which |
| don't get breast cancer, the fact is they can and | | | | affects post-menopausal women differently than |
| they do. One in every 229 women between the | | | | pre-menopausal women, so younger women who are |
| ages of 30 and 39 will be diagnosed with breast | | | | prescribed this drug as treatment need to do careful |
| cancer within the next 10 years.The statistics that | | | | research on their own to make sure that the |
| surround younger women and breast cancer are | | | | benefits outweigh the risks of the drug.An additional |
| frightening. Although only a small percentage of all | | | | area of concern for younger women who have |
| new breast cancer cases each year involve women | | | | breast cancer include issues such as early onset on |
| aged 40 and younger, breast cancer is still the leading | | | | menopause and fertility issues. Many young women |
| cause of death for women between the ages of 15 | | | | who are diagnosed with breast cancer have not yet |
| and 54. The number of young women diagnosed | | | | begun a family. One of the side effects of |
| each year with breast cancer is between 11-12,000. | | | | chemotherapy and/or hormonal therapies can be |
| Close to 1400 of those women will die each year. A | | | | irreversible menopause. Tamoxifen is a drug that can |
| lot of young women and their doctors do not realize | | | | affect fertility, so again, younger women will need to |
| that they too are at risk for this disease.One of the | | | | research their choices carefully if they plan to have |
| problems with detection of breast cancer in younger | | | | children or start a family in the future. One of the |
| women is that a mammogram is not an effective | | | | newer treatments for women with hormone |
| screening tool for women under 40. Younger women | | | | receptive breast cancer has only been shown to be |
| tend to have dense breast tissue and that prevents | | | | effective with post-menopausal women, so a |
| tumors or areas of calcifications to be seen in the | | | | treatment option that younger women will have to |
| film. Because of the lack of screening tools, younger | | | | make in the future is if they want to take tamoxifen |
| women are often diagnosed at a later stage in the | | | | OR shut down or remove their ovaries to bring on |
| disease than their older counterparts. In addition, | | | | early menopause to benefit from a more effective |
| young women's cancers are generally more | | | | treatment.The final issue that young women with |
| aggressive and have lower rates of survival. The | | | | breast cancer face is the isolation they sometimes |
| survival rate for 5 years is 83% for younger women | | | | feel - brought about by being the youngest in their |
| - lower than the survival rate for post-menopausal | | | | support group and having to deal with different |
| women.Another issue that impacts younger women | | | | issues than their older counterparts. One organization |
| who have breast cancer is that most research is | | | | which helps provide a network for young breast |
| done on breast cancer patients who are over the | | | | cancer survivors is the Young Survival |
| age of 40 or post-menopausal. Younger women are | | | | Coalition.Remember - no woman is too young to |
| an underrepresented population in research studies. | | | | have Breast Cancer. |