40% of women under 50 years old in Taiwan suffer from breast cancer. 2019-07-15

40% of women under 50 years old in Taiwan suffer from breast cancer.

According to a collaborative study between National Taiwan University Hospital and National Health Research Institutes, the number of women suffer from breast cancer before menopause in Taiwan has increased and occur in young age. The number of young cancer patients has quadrupled in the past 40 years, which may be related to environmental hormone exposure. Fertility and other factors are related, and many pregnant women are not willing to treat even if they find cancer, which often leads to a worsening of the condition.
 
Young cancer patients have increased 4 times in 40 years 
Although there are a low incidence of breast cancer in Asia area, the incidence of young breast cancer in Singapore, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan has increased rapidly. Xiong Zhao, director of the National Health Research Institutes of Community Health Research, pointed out that further analysis of breast cancer in the United States is a disease of the elderly, but about 40% of Taiwan's breast cancer patients are younger women, which is arond 20 to 50 years old.
Xiong Zhao said that the research team examined the cancer registration files and health insurance database from 2002 to 2014, found that there were more than 30,000 patients diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 20 to 50, of which about 8.8% and 2679 were pregnancy in the first 5 years of breast cancer.
  
Related to environmental hormones and late fertility
Xiong Zhao pointed out that pregnant women with breast cancer may easily ignore pre-cancerous signs due to physiological changes during pregnancy or lactation, causing delays in diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer, and only about 12% of pregnant women in Taiwan are willing to receive chemotherapy, the main reason for their unwillingness to receive treatment. In order to worry about the injury to the fetus, compared with more than 60% of pregnant women in Belgium and Germany are willing to receive treatment, the gap is great.
Xiong Zhao said that the research team collected reports from various countries and showed that after 14 weeks of chemotherapy, the fetus is still safe and does not need to terminate pregnancy. The survival rate is comparable to that of general breast cancer patients. The child's health, cardiovascular function, growth range, There is no difference in cognitive function, etc., reminding women not to receive treatment because of pregnancy or breastfeeding. 

Physician appeal: Do not receive treatment because of pregnancy, breastfeeding
Lin Jihong, a physician at the Department of Oncology Medicine at National Taiwan University Hospital, also participated in the study. He pointed out that the mammary gland after birth will be mature and fully functional, and it is less susceptible to external carcinogens. As the country grows late, Lin Jihong said that recent studies have also pointed out that many environmental hormone exposures such as plasticizers, delays in birth and the number of births are important reasons for the increase in breast cancer. Lin Jihong suggested that women's best birth time is between 22 and 30 years old, and avoid excessive intake of fat or calories, avoid exposure to environmental hormones. To exercise could reduce the risk of breast cancer.