Breast cancer and young people – The facts

Anyone registered with a GP as female will be invited for NHS breast screening from age 50. Yet we know that 2,500 people under the age of 40 are diagnosed with breast cancer every year. 

Breast screening is not routinely available to young people on the NHS, as the risk outweighs the benefit, and mammograms are less effective due to their denser breast tissue. 

This means that what CoppaFeel!, the NHS and other breast cancer charities refer to as breast awareness – knowing the signs of breast cancer and monthly self-checking, is often the only way for someone under screening age to notice unusual changes. 

Many breast cancers are found through self-detected symptoms, and crucially, data tell us that when breast cancer is found early, treatments are more effective and survival rates are higher. 

5-year breast cancer survival in England:

• Stage 1: 98.2%
• Stage 2: 89.5%
• Stage 3: 72.2%
• Stage 4 is 26.6%

However, we also know that awareness, knowledge and confidence amongst young people around breast cancer is not as high as we’d like it to be.

Our 2024 annual research tells us that:

These statistics show that there’s still work to be done to make sure young people:

• Are aware that breast cancer could happen to them now, or in the future.
• Are checking their chest monthly and feel confident doing so.
• Are confident knowing the signs of breast cancer and noticing any unusual changes for them.

We want to work together, with you, to increase young people’s awareness, knowledge and confidence on breast cancer and monthly checking. We encourage you to proactively educate young people to be breast aware and to urgently refer your patients if they present with symptoms, regardless of age.

Our work at CoppaFeel! is focused on closing the health inequity gap for young people. We exist because they are often neglected from conversations about breast cancer, and experience barriers in accessing healthcare, in relation to referral and diagnosis.

We also know that if our messaging reaches people at a younger age, it’ll improve health outcomes for all people, at any age.

As well as educating all young people, we prioritise some groups first because there is even more work to be done to close the gap.

Our priority groups are determined by health data, which indicates who is in greatest need of our work. We also look at gaps in health data and where individual, cultural, historical or systemic barriers can make accessing our breast awareness message more difficult.