Age Children 1. Some women develop breast cancer in their 20s and 30s.
Many breast tumors appear as a lump and are found when women examine their own breasts.
Some tumors are discovered when a physician or nurse examines a woman's breast. Sometimes a breast tumor is found by a special x-ray of the breast called a mammogram. Doctors recommend that all women over age 50 have a mammogram each year to detect possible breast cancer. Not all breast tumors or lumps are cancer. When a woman or her doctor finds a breast lump or when a tumor shows up on a mammogram, a surgeon removes all or part of the tumor to see whether the tumor contains cancer cells.