SINGAPORE – Ms Jamie Ng was just 23 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Ms Dawn Chua was 30 and mother of a one-year-old baby when she received the same shocking news. While breast cancer is the most common cancer among women – one in 13 in Singapore will get it in her lifetime – it is commonly thought of as a disease that strikes women in midlife and beyond.
That may be changing. Recent studies show cancer is on the rise among younger people below the age of 50. Among women, breast cancer’s reach is getting younger too.
An American study published in the Jama Network Open journal in 2024 showed that since 2016, the incidence of breast cancer among women aged 20 to 49 in the US increased dramatically to 3.76 per cent a year from 0.24 per cent a year previously, notes Dr Tang Siau-Wei, a senior consultant and breast surgeon at Solis Breast Care & Surgery Centre, a private practice here.
About 10 per cent of breast cancer patients at the National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS) – more than 100 annually – are women below the age of 40, says Dr Ma Jun, an associate consultant in NCCS’ Division of Medical Oncology. KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH) has seen a slight increase in the percentage of breast cancer patients aged below 40, from 8 per cent to 10 per cent between 2019 and 2022, says Associate Professor Lim Geok Hoon, head and senior consultant in the KK Breast Department. During the same period, KKH saw a 33 per cent rise in breast cancer pat.
