Health Headline: Data shows more young women being diagnosed with breast cancer each year
Christine Amitrano was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer five years ago this week.
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On National Mammography Day, data reveals that more young women are being diagnosed with breast cancer each year.
Christine Amitrano’s mother, who was adopted, encouraged her to get a mammography when she was 34 years old.
She had to get it done a year later so that her insurance would cover it.
She was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer five years ago this week.
“I started systemic chemo, so I did that for four months. I got three different chemo treatments. I lost all my hair,” said Amitrano.
Amitrano then had two lumpectomies and radiation treatment.
“We do see more breast cancer in the younger population than we used to," said Dr. Jules Cohen, Amitrano’s medical oncologist at the Stony Brook Cancer Center. “We can't really say why an individual person developed breast cancer.”
According to the American Cancer Society, in the latest available data, the breast cancer incidence rate among women under the age of 50 has risen about 1.4% each year, compared to 1% each year among women over the age of 50."
“I think it's important to have a sense of your own anatomy, to do your own self-breast exam," said Dr. Cohen.
Amitrano's experience inspired her to take a different path in her career, from teacher to MRI technologist.
“Especially when they are just diagnosed, I will share my story with them just to show them, there is someone else out there that also went through it and that you can get through it,” she said.
Amitrano’s cancer is in remission. She has since run the New York City Marathon, raising $4,500 for the Carol M. Baldwin Breast Cancer Center.
She also volunteers on the Patient Family Advisory Council at the Stony Brook Cancer Center.
