Breast cancer now grips girls as young as 14

Pratiksha Ramkumar,TNN | Oct 27, 2015, 12.29 PM IST

Breast cancer now grips girls as young as 14 (Getty Images)

Breast cancer, which has been seen predominantly in women above 50, is striking young women, even teenage girls.

And doctors are divided on whether genetics or lifestyle is the primary culprit. Recently, a 14-year-old schoolgirl in Coimbatore was diagnosed with breast cancer. Delhi's youngest patient was a 19-year-old. Oncologists say each hospital sees two or three such teenagers every year.

While teenage cases still remain a rarity , the cancer registry at Sri Ramakrishna Institute of Oncology and Research, Coimbatore shows the incidence of breast cancer in women below the age of 35 has gone up from 3% to 8% in 10 years. The Indian Council of Medical Research registry in Delhi confirms the trend: Incidence in the age group 20-40 years has gone up from 5% to 15% in 20 years.

Going by the records at Kovai Medical Centre, every year after 35 seems to be a danger zone for women. "Almost 40% of our patients are below the age of 40. Women in this age group constituted 10% around seven years ago," says Dr Rupa Renganathan, consultant radiologist at the centre. "There is a threefold increase in incidence among women aged 20-40," says Dr P K Julka, who heads the Delhi chapter of the ICMR registry .

Though India lacks a population-based cancer registry and the triggers of cancer remain largely unknown, some oncologists believe lifestyle changes are leading to hormonal changes. "One probable reason is obesity and people's BMI being higher than it used to be in the earlier generations," said Dr Anand Narayan, oncologist at G Kuppusamy Naidu Memorial Hospital.

Dr Renganathan concurs. "Increase in dietary fat intake leads to hormonal changes like excess estrogen production which is known to increase the risk of breast cancer," she says.

Dr Julka, however, is not convinced. "We cannot attribute it to only lifestyle and dietary habits. Anyway , early diagnosis is the key," he says.

Then there are older theories blaming late marriage and delayed pregnancy -beyond the age of 30 -which contributes to excess estrogen. "Late marriage, late pregnancy and having lesser number are associated with breast cancer," says Dr Renganathan. "This is because a breast matures or develops completely only after lactation and breastfeeding. Breastfeeding reduces estrogen production. So when you breastfeed early, your exposure to estrogen gets reduced by a year," she says.

Doctors say any woman below the age of 40 diagnosed with breast cancer should undergo genetic screening and counselling. "We have no iced that a majority of them have a cancer history in their family," says Dr Narayan.

"In girls, below 20 years of age, genetic predisposition or familial history is the main cause. Risk factors involving lifestyle, take longer to cause hormonal imbalance and disease," Dr Julka says
.