Rise in breast cancer cases among younger women in PHL seen, says expert

The number of younger women being diagnosed with breast cancer is increasing, urging those at risk to undergo early cancer screening, a medical expert said.

“There’s such a thing as ‘cancer in the young.’ I believe that pabata nang pabata ‘yung mga nadi-diagnose [I believe that those being diagnosed are getting younger and younger],” Dr. Marvin Jonne L. Mendoza, medical oncologist at St. Luke’s Medical Center, said during a breast cancer awareness forum organized by AstraZeneca on Wednesday.

“I have patients—breast cancer patients—who are 25 years old, 24 years old. These are young women in their prime,” he added.

Mr. Mendoza said that the incidence of the disease among the younger population is not unique to breast cancer, as the same trend is also seen in other types, such as colon cancer.

“There are a number of (risk) factors, but mostly it’s because of our lifestyle, environmental factors, (consumption of) processed foods, smoking, and excessive alcohol intake,” he said in both mixed English and Filipino.

Kara Magsanoc-Alikpala, founding president of the ICanServe Foundation, a local breast cancer advocacy group, said there is a rising trend of breast cancer among younger women in Southeast Asia (SEA), citing a report that she co-authored for The Lancet Oncology.

According to the report, while breast cancer remains most common among women over 50, cases among those aged 15 to 39 have steadily increased between 1990 and 2021 across most Southeast Asian countries.

Thailand recorded the highest incidence rate at 11.78 per 100,000 population, while in the Philippines, the rate rose from three in 1990 to around six to seven in 2021.

The mortality among the age group has also slightly increased in the country of 2.17 per 100,000 population from about one in 1980.

Breast cancer remains the most common cancer in the Philippines, with nearly 189,000 cases and over 113,000 deaths reported, according to a 2022 report by the Global Cancer Observatory.

However, Mr. Mendoza said the disease is treatable, especially when detected early through various screening methods such as mammography, ultrasound, MRI, and the more recent use of biomarkers.

Amid the younger trend of breast cancer incidence, Mr. Mendoza recommends that women aged 40 and above start undergoing mammogram screening, while those who have a direct relative diagnosed with the disease can begin at a younger age.

“Let’s say if your mother was diagnosed at age 35 or above. So you start screening at around 25 years old. Because you have a higher risk, he said.

The World Health Organization (WHO) still highly recommends conducting mammography screening every two years for women aged 50 to 69 in limited-resource settings like the Philippines. — Edg Adrian A. Eva