Young women in the US are not dying from breast cancer as often as they did a decade ago.
This is according to a study presented last week at an American Association for Cancer Research meeting in Chicago, which found that from 2010 to 2020 breast cancer deaths among women aged 20 to 49 declined significantly across all breast cancer subtypes and racial and ethnic groups — with marked declines after 2016.
Overall, breast cancer deaths in this age group fell from 9.70 per 100,000 women in 2010, to 1.47/100,000 in 2020.
Study leader Adetunji Toriola of the Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis said in a statement the decline was sharper after 2016, likely due to:
- advances in treatment options;
- greater uptake of precision medicine; and
- expanded access to care and screening in women aged 40 to 49.
While breast cancer mortality declined in every racial and ethnic group, non-Hispanic black women had the highest rate in both 2010 (16.56/100,000) and 2020 (3.41/100,000). Non-Hispanic white women had the lowest rates in 2010 (9.18/100,000) and 2020 (1.16/100,000).
We have made tremendous advances in reducing mortality from breast cancer in young women, but there are still opportunities for improvements, especially in relation to eliminating disparities
— Study leader Adetunji Toriola of the Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis
“We have made tremendous advances in reducing mortality from breast cancer in young women, but there are still opportunities for improvements, especially in relation to eliminating disparities,” Toriola said.
“We must continue to perform [effective] research to ensure further reduction in breast cancer mortality, including research into understanding the tumour biology and molecular mechanisms driving carcinogenesis and treatment response in younger women.”
Meanwhile, researchers at the Heart Rhythm 2025 meeting in San Diego have reported that GLP-1 drugs — used to treat diabetes and which have become popular for weight loss — may be useful for controlling the heart rhythm disorder atrial fibrillation .
The researchers looked at more than 2,500 patients with type 2 diabetes, atrial fibrillation (AF) and obesity at 170 US Veterans Affairs medical centres. They found that those who were receiving a GLP-1 drug experienced a 13% reduction in AF-related events during a median follow-up of three years, compared to patients receiving other medications for their diabetes.
AF-related events included hospitalisation for the disorder, need for electroshock therapy to reset the heart rhythm, and ablation procedures to heat heart tissue to create scars that interrupt the electrical signals causing the arrhythmia.
The researchers did not identify the drugs being taken, but common examples of GLP-1 medicines for diabetes include Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic, Rybelsus and Victoza, and Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro and Trulicity.
Because patients were taking low doses of GLP-1 drugs — rather than the higher doses used for weight loss — the results suggest the arrhythmia benefits are independent of any weight-loss benefit, the researchers noted.
The study was not designed to prove the GLP-1 drugs caused the reduction in AF events.
However, study leader Dr Varun Sundaram of the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Centre and Case Western Reserve University, said that “given the growing obesity epidemic and the rising prevalence of atrial fibrillation”, it laid a foundation for a new approach to treating AF if larger trials confirmed the potential benefits.
Reuters
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