Breast cancer rising among younger women and Asian Americans, report finds

Even as death rates from breast cancer have fallen, rates of new diagnoses continue to tick upwards, according to an American Cancer Society report.

Americans have benefited from huge leaps in breast cancer treatment over the last two decades, but diagnoses are becoming more common, especially among younger women, according to a report published Tuesday by the American Cancer Society.

The new report shows that breast cancer mortality has decreased by 44% since the late 1980s. Rates of breast cancer, however, have increased by 1% every year since 2012. In younger women, rates have increased at a faster clip — by about 1.4% every year since 2021.

“That is very alarming because we know that screening only starts at age 40,” said Dr. Sonya Reid, a breast medical oncologist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, who was not involved with the report. “It’s not just one racial or ethnic group affected, we are seeing it across the board, so it’s hard to link it to ancestral or genetic factors alone.”