In May 2023, the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) released draft recommendations that women ages 40 to 74 years old be screened for breast cancer every other year.1 As screening recommendations propose to include younger women, we sought to understand how the typical age at breast cancer diagnosis has changed over time.
We evaluated 484,177 breast cancer diagnoses between 2018 and 2023 to determine the average age at diagnosis. The average age at breast cancer diagnosis, which shows a slight seasonal trend, remained steady across the five years assessed, as shown in Figure 1.
However, the average age at diagnosis varies greatly by race and ethnicity. Hispanic or Latino women are diagnosed at an average age of 57.2 years, which is more than seven years younger than White women, who have an average diagnosis age of 64.5 years. We found that Asian and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander women are diagnosed at a younger average age than both White and Black women. Similar to previous studies, we also found that Black women are diagnosed at a younger average age than White women.2 These differences in age remained across race and ethnicity even when controlling for social vulnerability.
We found that Hispanic and Latino patients were least likely to have had a recent documented screening, with fewer than two in five patients diagnosed having a screening within one year prior to their breast cancer diagnosis. This may suggest that patients are seeking care based on experiencing symptoms rather than through screening. However, screenings may be undercounted in our data as screenings performed outside of the organization where the initial breast cancer diagnosis was made may not be reported.
