Daniele treats patients at UMC and the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. She says cases have climbed about 1% since roughly 2012. "In young patients, that increased risk or incidents has been about 1.4%," she said.
The American Cancer Society reports breast cancer is the number one cause of cancer death for women ages 25 to 49. Daniele describes the disease as abnormal cells growing in breast tissue. They can destroy and replace healthy tissue, or spread to other parts of the body.
Her advice is simple. Women should get an early screening or go over a risk assessment with their personal health care provider, especially if breast cancer runs in the family. Stages 0 through 3 are treatable and curable. At stage 4, when doctors find cancer elsewhere in the body, it is treatable but not curable. Treatment paths vary too. Some patients start with surgery, while others begin with chemotherapy or systemic therapy, then surgery, then radiation.
For Daniele, the line between curable and not comes down to how soon someone gets checked.