Lung cancer causes many more deaths among women, yet it does not come close to breast cancer when women are asked about their health concerns. The Merck survey showed that five times as many women listed breast cancer rather than lung cancer as the health topic that interested them the most. Of course, lung cancer rarely strikes before age 50, even among women who have been lifelong heavy smokers. Heart disease, too, is unlikely to kill women younger than 60, while breast cancer does sometimes strike women in their 30s and 40s. But premenopausal breast cancer is not nearly so common as most women seem to believe.
Breast cancer is primarily a disease of older women.
By age 35, a woman has 1 chance in 622 of developing breast cancer. Furthermore, breast cancer is not nearly so deadly as many women think. The death rate has been dropping lately, thanks largely to earlier detection and improved treatments. But don't think I am callous about this disease. It took three of my friends in their early 40s, and two of them left behind young children.