How early puberty may be linked increase of breast cancer among younger women
More younger women are getting a type of hormone-related breast cancer. Doctors aren’t clear why but early puberty may be a factor.
More younger women are getting breast cancer, and doctors are scrambling to understand why.
Rates of breast cancer in women under 50 have increased more than 15% in the last two decades, a rise that is almost entirely driven by an increase in estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer (ER+), a tumor subtype that needs the hormone estrogen to grow and spread.
Estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer is the most common type among all age groups. Because this specific type of breast cancer is almost exclusively causing the spike in younger women, some doctors suspect the trend is related to more people in the U.S. getting their periods earlier and having their first baby later.
“Women are being exposed to more estrogen over their lifespans,” said Dr. Alexandra Thomas, a medical oncologist at Duke Health. “That’s probably a big piece of it, but we don’t know why we’re seeing earlier periods.”
Numerous factors are likely behind the increase — including obesity, alcohol consumption, genetics and some hormonal birth control — but the role early puberty plays in a woman’s breast cancer risk is gaining attention. The age of puberty for girls has been falling for decades, especially among Black and Asian Americans.
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