AURORA, Colo. — Data collected from UCHealth researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus show breast cancer rates are increasing among younger women. That's why doctors are urging women who may be at high risk to schedule a screening.
Boulder County resident Sandy Nielsen wishes she'd done that sooner. Nielsen went for a routine checkup at a UCHealth campus up north. She said all went well but her doctor still advised her to get an MRI since she was at higher risk for breast cancer.
She put it off for months. "I kept getting reminders in the mail to schedule this procedure, so I did that in January of this year," she said. "So that was followed up with a biopsy and really a day later I received a push notification on my app that said you have cancer.
" It wasn't just any cancer. It was similar to the kind her mother had 20 years ago. "Almost identical," she said.
"It was just like 'shoot, I was not expecting it. It isn't supposed to happen now.'" Credit: Credit: Sandy Nielsen Sandy Nielsen (right) poses for a photo with her mother.
She was diagnosed with a similar form of breast cancer her mother battled 20 years ago. New research from doctors with UCHealth shows the age of a breast cancer diagnosis is becoming younger. Dr.
Virginia Borges is the director of the University of Colorado Breast Cancer Research Program. Her research shows if a woman is diagnosed in the first five to 10 years after pregnancy, the prognosis is often poor. "They have an increa.