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The highest number of deaths from breast cancer was 42,465, in the United States reported in 2018.
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In 2019, the breast cancer death rate dropped from 31.9 to 19.4 per 100,000 people in the United States.
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According to Statista, by 2023, an estimated 43,170 women in the United States will die of breast cancer.
Maura, a 7-year-old girl from Chile, has become the youngest patient in the world to be diagnosed with breast cancer. The symptoms began when the little girl was 5 years old and were detected by her mother while she was bathing her, when she noticed a strange lump on her chest.
After a medical evaluation, the oncologists determined that it was a rare type of breast cancer in the girl, a case that, according to the Chilean media, has surprised the country’s scientific community.
At first the doctors assured that it was something normal: “The doctor stressed to me that what I had was not normal: that, if I waited too long, it would grow, but he never told me that it could come to this,” the mother, Patricia Muñoz, explained to the local media 24 hours.
Due to the recorded diagnosis, it was recommended that the little girl undergo a total excision of the breast in order to prevent the tumor from spreading to other parts of the body.
Patricia Muñoz assures that her daughter has not understood the magnitude of the disease she has. “The only thing she has mentioned to me when I take her to the oncologist is that she doesn’t want to be bald, but she doesn’t understand that she doesn’t have her breast,” she explains. The girl’s mother fears how her daughter will feel with her body when she grows up.
For the moment, the patient is waiting for the results to find out if she has metastasis or not, according to what was reported by other means. His family is willing to move to Barcelona, where they have treated complicated tumors in children.
Is breast cancer common in underage patients?
According to the National Cancer Institute of the United States, breast cancer is the most frequent cancer in women between the ages of 15 and 39; however, less than 5% of breast cancers occur in women in this age group. Breast cancer in this age group is more aggressive and more difficult to treat than in older women.
Treatment for younger and older women is similar. Younger patients may receive genetic counseling (a discussion with a professional who specializes in hereditary diseases) and be tested for familial cancer syndromes. The possible effects of treatment on fertility should also be considered.
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