Breast Cancer: More Young Women Succumb to Silent Killer

Ye Danyang will always remember the day in October 2001 when she found a lump in her left breast.

The doctor she turned to for help dismissed it as “nothing serious.” Since the lump did not hurt, the TV documentary producer continued with her busy schedule.

But womanly intuition prompted her to see an oncologist and she was told that she needed an immediate operation on her cancer- afflicted breast.

“I was then 36, not exactly young,” Ye told China Features. “Yet I thought I was too young to suffer from breast cancer. I had heard that breast cancer was found only among aged women.”

Top killer

According to the Chinese Ministry of Health, in 2004, malignant tumour ranked second among the top 10 killer diseases in China.

A survey undertaken by the ministry shows that from 1991 to 2000, the death rate from breast cancer increased by 38.7 per cent among China’s urban women, and 39.1 per cent among rural women.

Chinese women aged between 45 and 49 are most vulnerable to breast cancer, 10-15 years younger than their American counterparts.

More worrying is the fact that there has been a significant increase in the incidence of breast cancer among Chinese women aged 25-40.

These and other statistics have prompted Xu Guangwei, a prominent oncologist, to call breast cancer a kind of “epidemic.”

“Thanks to the reform and opening-up policy, living standards have improved and lifestyles have become increasingly diversified,” noted Xu, who is honorary director of the Peking University’s School of Oncology and the China Anti-Cancer Association. “While good for China as a nation, this may have contributed to the increase in the incidence of cancer.”

He was referring to the preference for fast foods to save on time, the rising number of double-income-no-kid families, the reluctance of women to have babies before 30 and excessive intake of fat.

“I have told the media time and again that breast cancer can develop in women of any age group,” he said. “Many factors that induce formation of tumour in breasts are yet to be known. But I am definitely sure of one thing, that is, all women, whether old or young, are open to the risk of breast cancer.”

Why Me?

Ye Danyang said she was luckier than many others in terms of her husband’s love and support.

She insisted that the surgeon make as small an incision as possible so that the breast would not have to be removed.

Her doctors at the Beijing Chaoyang Hospital agreed after a “most elaborate, most sophisticated examination” of her conditions.

“For a woman, breasts are not just yet another organ. Lots of women would rather die than having their breasts removed,” she said.

China Features found that for many women who are diagnosed with breast cancer, the first question is always, “Why me? Why now?” The initial reaction is one of fear and frustration.

“All I can do is to drag on with this life,” said Xiao He (pseudonym), now warded at a hospital in Beijing. “Days now feel like years.”

The woman, 27, is a school teacher from Wuhan, Central China’s Hubei Province. Just a few days ago, she celebrated her engagement. Then came the devastating news that she was suffering from breast cancer and that it was at an advanced stage.

Her fiance left her without a second thought. But Xiao He has no regrets.

“I don’t want to burden any one in or outside my family.”

Breast screening

Xiao He has had to have both breasts removed and is now preparing for chemotherapy, which typically produces side effects such as nausea, loss of hair, premature menopause and possible loss of fertility.

“To have her right to be a mother deprived is the cruellest thing that could happen to a woman, along with loss of her breasts and in not a few cases, death,” said Xu.

To prevent such tragedies, he and other medical experts are sparing no efforts to improve on treatments for breast cancer while spreading awareness among women.

However, they agree that early detection remains the most efficient and cost-effective way of treating this killer disease.

“Regular mammography screening can reduce a woman’s chance of dying from breast cancer,” Xu said. “Besides, early detection may eradicate the necessity of removing lymph nodes, and in some cases, the need for removing one breast or both and the need for chemotherapy.”

But mammography has its own limitations.

According to Xu, East Asian women tend to have small and firm breasts, making it relatively difficult for X-rays to penetrate.

“But such limitations can be overcome,” he said.

In an effort to improve the prevention and treatment of breast cancer, Xu is now heading a programme to make early detection of the disease available across the country.

The “One Million Chinese Women Breast Screening Project” is aimed at developing up to 100 screening sites in different parts of the country, all well-equipped and staffed by competent doctors.

In six years, each site is expected to register anywhere between 10,000 and 15,000 women for regular screening – once in one year and six months.

“By 2010,” Xu said, “we will have completed the building-up of a database on up to 1 million Chinese women.”

“It’s a huge project, a mammoth challenge,” he conceded. “We are the first in China to do this kind of quantitative research.”

Till now, 21 sites have been set up. Of the 312 women registered at the General Hospital of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Beijing Military Area Command, nine were found to have malignant breast tumours and are being treated.

Xu Guangwei plans to start nine more sites for the project before the end of this year.