Breast cancer is generally associated with older women over the age of 65. However, even young women below the age of 40 are susceptible and can be affected by breast cancer. The percentage of young women diagnosed with breast cancer is certainly less, but even that number is higher than 10,000 women every year in the country.

The diagnosis of breast cancer in young women is more difficult than in seniors. This is because routine mammograms are not advised for women younger than 40 years. Also, since young women have dense breasts, detecting cancer can be difficult. Unless a close family member like a mother, grandmother, aunt, or sister has had breast cancer at an early age, there is no reason to suspect this disease. Here’s a list of breast cancer treatments for young women:

1. Surgery
The first step in treatment would be surgery. In a lumpectomy, the aim is to remove the malignant tumor in the breast along with a little bit of surrounding tissue. In a mastectomy, the entire breast tissue, the skin, and the nipple are removed. This is done for two reasons: to prevent cancer from spreading to other areas of the body, and to reduce the risk of recurrence of cancer. Which type of surgery is performed, and whether chemotherapy, hormone therapy, radiation therapy, and/or targeted therapy is suggested before or after surgery will depend on the place of origin of cancer, its size, how aggressively it is spreading, and the size of the breasts. In case cancer has invaded the lymph nodes under the arms, then they too would be removed surgically.

2. Chemotherapy
When anticancer drugs are injected into the patient’s body to destroy cancer cells, they stop the ability of cancer cells to grow and multiply. A single drug or a combination of chemotherapy drugs can be used depending on what the patient requires.

3. Adjuvant radiotherapy
Special machines that use high energy X-rays target specific areas in the breast where surgery is performed. Adjuvant radiotherapy helps destroy residual cancer cells, if any, in the body thus reducing the probability of cancer recurring in the same area.

4. Hormone therapy
When estrogen present in young women’s bodies causes the multiplication of cancer cells, it is termed estrogen receptor-positive. Hormone therapy is used only for this type of breast cancer. The drugs used in this therapy blocks the estrogen from allowing the cancer cells to grow, reduces the risk of recurrence of breast cancer or treat cancer that has already reappeared, and reduces the size of the tumor before surgery is performed.

5. Targeted therapy
Certain drugs that specifically target the malfunctioning protein that causes breast cancer and impede its growth are used in targeted therapy.

6. Ovarian suppression
Aiming to suppress the ovaries from producing estrogen, this treatment is especially useful for young women having estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer. If they have not yet reached menopause, and if they want to preserve fertility that could be damaged due to chemotherapy, ovarian suppression is beneficial.