Young women ‘worryingly ignorant’ over breast cancer risks

Young women know very little about the link between lifestyle habits and an increase in the chance of developing breast cancer, a new study has found.

Cancer Research UK questioned more than 10,000 female students from 23 countries and discovered that less than five per cent were aware that alcohol, exercise or being overweight could have a bearing on the odds of developing breast cancer.

Although just over half of those questioned knew that hereditary factors could influence breast cancer, under one third were unaware that any factors could influence their breast cancer risk.

Professor Jane Wardle, director of Cancer Research UK’s health behaviour unit at University College, London, said that female students were studied as they were likely to be “the opinion formers of the future” – with the findings therefore pointing to a worrying ignorance of the disease within this generation.

“The results of this study suggest that students could be overestimating the impact of genetic factors and are certainly underestimating the importance of lifestyle factors,” she said.

“The danger is that women who do not have relatives with breast cancer may believe that since they have a lower genetic risk they need take no account of lifestyle risks.”

Awareness in England is particularly poor as the country lags behind Iceland, Ireland, Greece and South America in knowledge about exercise and breast cancer risks. Eastern Europe, Africa and South America had the lowest awareness of hereditary links with breast cancer.

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