(Radio Iowa) – Studies show about one in eight Iowa women will get breast cancer during their lifetime, and while those numbers are holding steady, there’s a rise in breast cancer cases among young women who typically aren’t yet being screened. Dr. Hope Guzzo, a breast surgeon at Emplify Health by Gundersen, says that presents some unique challenges for women under 40. “It is scary,” Guzzo says. “Younger women can have more advanced cancers just because we aren’t screening them. So typically they are the ones that are coming in because they felt something, and by that time, it’s larger than someone that we would detect on screening.” Breast cancer screenings are recommended to start around age 40, while those who are considered at high risk should start mammograms even sooner. When found early, women have more treatment choices and a better chance of recovery.

“Rates aren’t going down, but we’re also getting better at detecting because our screening is getting better, which is a huge goal,” Guzzo says. “Our goal is to screen more women, and yes, by doing more screening, we will catch more cancers, but if we can catch them early, that’s the whole goal.” Younger women may be hesitant to seek a doctor’s counsel when they find a possible lump. “It’s easy to feel like they’re going to get blown off or feel like, ‘Well, because I’m 25, I couldn’t get breast cancer,’ but anytime you’re worried about something, I would rather you come to my clinic and I can do an exam, and if I’m worried about it, we can do imaging,” Guzzo says. “I would rather do more of those exams and find nothing, then have women sit at home and worry about something or be scared to come in.”

Roughly 27-hundred Iowa women are diagnosed with breast cancer every year, and almost 400 die from it. It’s the number-two cancer killer of Iowa women behind only lung cancer.

Emplify Health by Gundersen has clinics in Calmar, Decorah, Fayette, Lansing, Postville and Waukon, and a hospital in West Union.