Experts have urged for greater education and care around breast cancer after a survey found that less than half of all US women know their family’s history with the disease.
It also found that more than a fifth of young women have no plans of getting a mammogram.
The survey of 1,100 women across the US, commissioned by a network of community hospitals in Florida, found that 22 per cent of women aged between 35 and 44 have never gotten a mammogram, and do not plan on getting one.
In the UK, the NHS invites women for their first breast screening between the ages of 50 and 53. Following the initial screening, women are invited back every three years until they turn 71.
Younger women in the UK are not routinely offered breast screening through the NHS. This is because research has shown that screening is less effective than it is for older women, as their breast tissue is denser, and because the risk of developing the cancer is lower.
Those with increased risk because of family history may be offered a digital mammogram, which is better at detecting changes in denser breast tissue.
In the US, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network advises that women with an “average risk” of breast cancer should begin annual mammograms at age 40.
The survey found that 57 per cent of respondents did not know if there was a history of breast cancer in their family, while only 32 per cent understood their individual risk factors for developing the disease.
Nikita Shah, medical oncology team leader for the Breast Care Center at the Orlando Health Cancer Institute commented: “Mammograms can pick up tumors that are extremely small and result in a diagnosis at a stage zero or one, versus waiting for a patient to feel a lump and then by then it’s probably a stage two or three.”
Orlando Health, which commissioned the survey, highlighted that some groups are “disproportionately affected by the disease”.
Black women in the US are likely to be diagnosed at a younger age, and are 40 per cent more likely to die from breast cancer compared to white women.
“African American women tend to have a more aggressive disease course, and we want everybody, regardless of their race, to be aware and get their recommended mammograms,” Shah added.
“Breast cancer is one of the few cancers where the survival rate is very high when caught early, and we know that early detection is where we can really make a difference.”
