A Canadian woman died from breast cancer after being told by doctors she was too young for the disease. She was just 32 years old.
Throughout 2020, Valerie Buchanan, a Montreal resident, saw multiple doctors about a lump in her chest but was told repeatedly by healthcare professionals that it was just a benign cyst. They refused to send her for imaging due to her age.
Over a year later, she booked an appointment with a private clinic and was diagnosed with stage 3 triple-negative breast cancer – a particularly aggressive type of breast cancer. It later advanced to stage 4 within a few months.
Amidst several surgeries, along with multiple rounds of chemotherapy and radiation, she traveled, got married, made strides with her interior design business, and gave birth to a son.
The couple met online nearly two decades ago. At the time, Scheepers was living in Ottawa while Buchanan was in Montreal. They eventually got engaged in 2018.
Breast Cancer Cases are on the Rise Among Young Women
Breast cancer is the second most commonly diagnosed cancer in Canada, just behind lung cancer. In 2024, more than 30,000 women are expected to be diagnosed with the condition.
The incidences of breast cancer also seem to be increasing among younger women.
According to a new study, breast cancer diagnoses have gone up by more than 45 percent for those in their 20s, 12.5 percent for those in their 30s, and 9 percent for those in their 40s.
Dr. Jean Seely, who led the study, described the results as “alarming” as younger women are typically not offered imaging tests. This means the cancer is often at an advanced stage at diagnosis. As a result, their survival rates are much lower than in older women who are offered regular screenings.
Young women under the age of 40, particularly Black women, are more likely to be diagnosed with aggressive subtypes such as HER2-Positive and triple-negative breast cancer.
This is made worse by the fact that current systems are not designed to offer these women quick diagnoses and care.
In another study, it was shown that early screening programs can significantly improve a woman’s 10-year survival rate. Early detection is also more cost effective as it significantly reduces the length of treatments.
Breast Cancer Screening Guidelines
Many healthcare professionals are now pushing to update breast cancer screening guidelines, recommending that women start getting screened in their 40s instead of waiting until 50.
Despite that, the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care maintained its current recommendation that women should begin breast cancer screening at age 50.
The task force is now under review by an external expert review panel.
