Early Puberty May Contribute to Increase in Breast Cancer Among Younger Women
More younger women are getting breast cancer, and doctors are scrambling to understand why.
Rates of breast cancer in women under 50 have increased more than 15% in the last two decades, a rise that is almost entirely driven by an increase in estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer (ER+), a tumor subtype that needs the hormone estrogen to grow and spread.
“Women are being exposed to more estrogen over their lifespans,” said Dr. Alexandra Thomas, a medical oncologist at Duke Health. “That’s probably a big piece of it, but we don’t know why we’re seeing earlier periods.”
It’s long been known that starting puberty significantly early is linked to greater risk of developing breast cancer, although there’s little research yet about its influence on age at diagnosis.
“If you begin your period before 11, you’re at higher risk for breast cancer, and now the average age [of menarche] just keeps decreasing,” said Dr. Eleonora Teplinsky, head of breast and gynecologic medical oncology at Valley Health System in New Jersey.
Studies have suggested that for every year younger a girl is when she gets her period, her lifetime breast cancer risk increases by about 5%. Developing breasts early also increases breast cancer risk.
A study of nearly 50,000 women found that girls who developed breasts before age 10 had a 23% higher risk of developing breast cancer in their lives compared to those who began to develop breasts at age 12 or 13.
CDC: Wisconsin Children Fall Behind Other States in Vaccination Rates
The Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) announced children in Wisconsin are behind children in other states when it comes to vaccination rates.
DHS shared vaccine data with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), who compared that to other states across the country. The CDC reported 84.8% of Wisconsin kindergarteners were up-to-date on their measles, mumps and reubella (MMR) vaccine, while 92.7% of children nationwide have received their MMR vaccine.
The CDC noted Wisconsin children were also behind national vaccination rates for polio, pertussis and diptheria and tetanus (DTaP).
“There’s no shortage of vaccines, but we know families can be short on time, may not have a clinic close by, or worry about the cost, and that can make it difficult to get their kids in to be vaccinated. They may also have questions about the safety of the vaccines,” said Dr. Stephanie Schauer, Wisconsin Immunization Program Manager.
Walking Pneumonia Cases Spike Among Young Kids
Walking pneumonia cases are surging among young children in the United States, federal health officials warn.
“Bacterial infections caused by Mycoplasma pneumoniae (M. pneumoniae) increased in the United States since late spring and have remained high,” a statement issued Friday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) noted. “The proportion of patients discharged from emergency departments with a diagnosis of M. pneumoniae-associated pneumonia or acute bronchitis has been increasing over the past six months, peaking in late August.”
The worst rates of the illness have been seen in young children ages two to four, according to the agency.
“The increase in children ages 2–4 years is notable because M. pneumoniae historically hasn’t been recognized as a leading cause of pneumonia in this age group,” the CDC added.
Do you have a news tip? We want to hear from you!
Minnesota Kids With Mental Health Needs Cycle Through Juvenile Justice System, Often Without Options
A 12-year-old hunched over the table, doodling with highlighters on scrap paper as his public defender made the case that Minnesota’s mental health treatment system has failed him.
The boy, K.J., had been accused of multiple auto thefts. But criminal proceedings were halted after a court-appointed psychologist twice found him incompetent to stand trial. Instead, like many other high-risk kids, he remained locked up for weeks on end at the Juvenile Detention Center in downtown Minneapolis because the county could not find a secure residential facility to take him.
“It horrifies me that disabled children can be put in jail because the government doesn’t have anything better it can do with them,” said his attorney, Tracy Reid. “It’s also simply uncivilized.”
Across the state, child welfare advocates say they cannot find adequate, timely rehabilitative services for the kids who need them the most.
Meta to Face Massachusetts Lawsuit Claiming Its Features Purposefully Addict Children, Judge Rules
Despite Meta’s efforts to dismiss a lawsuit by the commonwealth of Massachusetts, claiming some of its features were designed to purposefully addict children to its platforms, the lawsuit will go forward, a judge ruled in a decision made public Friday.
Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, had argued that the lawsuit violated Section 230, which protects social media platforms from user content on its sites, and that it violated the First Amendment.
But Suffolk County Superior Court Judge Peter Krupp said that Section 230’s protections in the Communications Decency Act doesn’t apply to allegedly false statements that Meta made about its efforts to protect children on its sites and to keep children younger than 13 off Facebook and Instagram.
Mexican Schools Have 6 Months to Ban Sale of Junk Food or Face Heavy Fines
Schools in Mexico will have six months to implement a government-sponsored ban on junk food or else face heavy fines, officials said Monday.
The rules, published on Sept. 30, target products that have become staples for two or three generations of Mexican schoolkids: sugary fruit drinks sold in triangular cardboard cartons, chips, artificial pork rinds and soy-encased, salty peanuts with chile. School administrators who violate the order will face fines equivalent to between $545 and $5,450, which could double for a second offense, amounting to nearly a year’s wages for some of them.
The new ban targets products that have become staples for two or three generations of Mexican schoolkids: sugary fruit drinks sold in triangular cardboard cartons, chips, artificial pork rinds and soy-encased, salty peanuts with chile.
Previous attempts to implement laws against so-called “junk food” have met with little success.
