Ok, so I know the figures are 1 in 8 or 1 in 7 depending on which article you read but honestly. When I was diagnosed I knew one of my friends sister had had breast cancer and my family history 3 generations ago. That was it. I would see the bookings come through at work averaging one or two breast surgeries a week and sometimes there would be a few weeks with none at all.Now. WOW! 4 - 6 a week with the majority being 45-55yrs and a definite rise in under 40's. One of my friends mother in law diagnosed last year and now her mother last week. my daughters friends mother, a close work collegue a couple of months ago, a collegues sister a week after that, a collegues daughter around the same time. One of the senior medical consultants. A client drops a horse off to me and has to run or she'll be late for radiation!Bugger me. I get in to work today and ask where so and so is. "Oh, haven't you heard" She's been diagnosed last week and is off for bilat mx and ax clearance. All of these people I know in my little circle diagnosed within the last 12 months.Seriously what the heck is going on?

Hi All lots of stats and info on risk factors out there to ponder overOverweight Consumption of alcohol Lack of exerciseDelay in having childrenNot breastfeedingLiving longerLiving in Australia Yes we are more aware Media and celebrity health status have shaped our awarenessPeople are more willing to share details of their health problems than they did 15/20 years agoIt has become part of our social consiousness

The increase in awareness and screening leads to higher stats but also better survival rates.Undeveloped countries...well let's face it, a lot of those women don't have the privilege of aging and many would die without even having a confirmed diagnosis even if they did. Unfortunately undeveloped countries don't have the screening and health programs we do.My grandmother died of some kind if women's cancer. She never had it investigated just treated with morphine at the end. It's only once one of her daughters was diagnosed with ovarian cancer that they knew and a further 3 developed either breast or ovarian cancer. My point...just because not included in stats doesn't mean it hasn't been happening.Also there seems to be a big increase following any screening advertising push. Makes sense.

You are right @kezmusc. More and more women are being diagnosed and at a younger age. I asked this question to the Onco. I also asked her why the incidence was so much higher in developed countries compared to developing countries. There needs to be more research on WHY, but the big pharma companies will not be interested in funding such research.

We live in a far more advanced world now. The difference is staggering from generation to generation cancer was once a death sentence now there is hope for a lot more of us

I feel the same. It’s all around me at the moment ☹️

What the heck is going on with this BC thing????????

29 Replies

Caz1
Member
6 years ago
@kmakm would love to! Have sent you a PM :)
kmakm
Member
6 years ago
@Caz1 Sorry! Hey would you like to meet up one day for a cuppa and a chat? One freak show to another?!
Keeping_positiv
Member
6 years ago
Was it the newspaper they used to wrap the fish and chips in?
Afraser
Member
6 years ago
I grew up in Scotland - pea soup fogs, reeking coal chimneys everywhere, smoking in cinemas (I can still see the projection beam cutting through the smoke swirl). The Scottish diet (meat, potatoes, sugar and alcohol) scarcely helped. Of course no-one spoke of cancer out loud, so I have no recollection of what the stats were. None in my families to my knowledge. Who can tell?
Sister
Member
6 years ago
Did we have wheelie bins in 1976?

We eat more processed food than ever before, we're surrounded by things in the environment that are probably not too good for us, many more women drink alcohol in greater quantities than in previous generations... But why did you and I get it? May be genetic or may be that we were in the wrong place at the wrong time...
Afraser
Member
6 years ago
An excerpt from an interesting podcast from a researcher in Utah indicates:

.....the increase (in young women diagnosed with bc) was statistically large but not numerically large. And this is a very important difference to me and my listeners. The rate of advanced breast cancer in young women almost doubled, which sounds like a huge increase. But in absolute numbers, it went from 1.53 per 100,000 women per year in 1976 to 2.9 per 100,000 women per year. An absolute increase of a little over 1 per 100,000 women per year over the 36-year interval.

She also pointed our that obesity is a cancer risk and the incidence of obesity in young women has increased significantly over the same period.

The latter is certainly about what we are putting in our bodies, but not necessarily what we think of as chemical or environmental factors.
Caz1
Member
6 years ago
@kmakm well there you go, I didn’t know that slightly depressing stat.... think that makes me feel worse! ;)
kmakm
Member
6 years ago
I'm the same @Caz1. I was 51 when I was going through treatment. 53 now and I still haven't met anyone outside this forum and my support group who's been recently diagnosed. The only possible exception being the sister of a friend who I met at her mother's funeral. The average age of diagnosis in Australia is 62 I think, so it's not surprising. Give it another 10 years and I reckon we'll see more in our real lives.

@kezmusc Last week I went to a BC conference and an eminent speaker from Boston mentioned in passing that more younger women are being diagnosed, that they don't really know why but they're fairly sure it's something environmental, ie what we're putting into our bodies, how and where we're living. Outside influences, that kind of thing. There's so much to learn still.
Caz1
Member
6 years ago
Eeeeeww mind boggles @kezmusc :s
kezmusc
Member
6 years ago
He @Caz1 I think they're all hanging out with me :)
I was 45 when I did rads. The only other person my age was a man having rads for prostate cancer...jeesus they cop a rough dea with that eeewww. He was there the same time as me and spent most of his time whinging about Tamoxifen side effects....I understand how he felt now!