It should come as no surprise that young women, with limited financial resources, often tend to delay seeking medical attention for a lump they found, it is trend that needs to stop because lives often times can depend on it.
It should come as no surprise that young women, with limited financial resources, often tend to delay seeking medical attention for a lump they found, it is trend that needs to stop because lives often times can depend on it.While young women account for five percent of new breast cancers, their cancers tend to be more aggressive, and frequently reflect the BRCA 1 and 2 genetic mutations. Inflammatory Breast cancer, a rare and difficult to treat, aggressive cancer is also seen more frequently in young women.
In a study published online on Nov. 11 in the journal Cancer it was suggested that strategies to improve early diagnosis of breast cancer should take a woman’s financial situation into account if delays in seeking care are to be reduced.
The study included 600 women aged 40 and younger who were recently diagnosed with breast cancer found that 80 % of them found a lump themselves. Of this group, 17% waited a minimum of three months before seeking medical care. Additionally 12% of the women who waited to see a doctor had a wait of at least 90 days between the appointment and getting a diagnosis.
The study leader Dr. Kathryn Ruddy, of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota , shared” Because we discovered that women who are less financially comfortable are more likely to delay seeking medical attention for breast abnormalities that later are diagnosed as breast cancer, it appears that economic disparity may be an important consideration in future development of interventions to reduce delays.
