More women ages 24-39 are being diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer, a new study released in The Journal of the American Medical Association reports. The study found that from 1976-2009, the incidence of advanced breast cancer in this age group increased 2.1 % per year. The reason for this slow rise? The researchers aren’t sure but suspect that the rise may be due to genetics, smoking, alcohol intake, or obesity.

This news is disturbing to me as a woman, as a mother, and as a pediatrician. I have watched the age at which physicians are told to start doing routine screening mammograms rise. Some physicians’ groups advocate changing the current age of 40 to begin screening mammograms to age 50. With the new evidence that this study illuminates, this makes me personally uncomfortable.

According to the JAMAstudy, the current incidence of metastatic breast cancer in women 24-39 rose from 1.5 to 2.9 per 100,000 women during the span of time from 1973-2009. The American Cancer Research Institute cites that one in eight women will develop breast cancer in their lifetime. This show us that the fact remains that breast cancer is much more common in older women than in younger…