A new report by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare that examines the impact of breast cancer on young women reveals that breast cancer kills one woman a week, the Market Business reports.
Doctors say that breast cancer in younger women is usually more aggressive and less likely to respond to treatment. Younger women diagnosed with breast cancer are also more likely to have mutated BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes that present a poor prognosis.
"These young women are at a life stage in which they are building careers, establishing relationships and planning for a family. Issues such as infertility, early menopause and body image as well as time away from work and family can have a substantial impact, with long term physical, psychological and social effects," the chief executive officer of Cancer Australia, Professor Helen Zorbas, said.
"Although the number of young women diagnosed with breast cancer has increased over time, the incidence rate has remained stable over the past three decades."
The report is the first one to look at the situation facing young women with breast cancer.
The report further revealed that 795 women aged between 20 and 39 years would be diagnosed with breast cancer this year and 65 women would die from the disease.
"This is an average of two diagnoses a day and one death a week," a spokesman for the institute, Justin Harvey, said.
"When looking at breast cancer in young women, we see a higher proportion of very large breast cancers diagnosed than in older women. Very large breast cancers are associated with lower survival than small breast cancers," Mr Harvey said.
Even in the case of small breast cancers, young women have a lower survival rate than women aged 40 and over.
However, the report also said that women had a better chance of surviving the disease now than 20 years ago.
