Breast cancer: age-related factors

The literature on breast cancer inevitably includes age as a risk factor for the disease, and there is considerable controversy regarding the best age for women to start screening mammography. A woman's breast develops and changes over the course of her lifetime, and at various times is more or less susceptible to cancer. Developmental differences also affect breast imaging. This article focuses on the age groups outside the majority of women who receive breast cancer diagnoses, instead emphasizing effects of age on the very youngest and oldest women.