Video confuses data on breast cancer cases and deaths | Fact check

Kate S. Petersen, USA TODAY
·4 min read
2
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force changed its mammography screening guidelines in 2009 to recommend that routine breast cancer screening start at age 50 rather than age 40.

The claim: Cancer deaths for women under 45 increased more than 10-fold between 2019 and 2023

A June 22 Instagram video (direct link, archive link) shows a person talking about purported breast cancer death rates.

"Have you visited cancer.org lately and taken a look at their stats?" the person asks. She goes on to claim that, for women 45 and younger, there were about 26,000 breast cancer deaths from 2019 to 2021. She claims deaths then climbed to 47,000 in 2022 and 297,000 in 2023.

"Don’t worry," she said. "It has nothing at all to do with the shot."

The video, which garnered more than 3,000 likes in less than two weeks, features a banner that reads, "We tried to warn people."

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Our rating: False

The numbers in the video are presented as breast cancer deaths for women under 45, but they actually roughly match estimates of new cases of breast cancer projected by the American Cancer Society. Estimated breast cancer death numbers reported by the organization were much lower. The three numbers mentioned in the video − 26,000, 47,000 and 297,000 − are similar to projected breast cancer incidence statistics for women in several different age groups, not just women under 45.

Video exaggerates breast cancer death numbers

For the years 2019, 2020 and 2021, the American Cancer Society, which has cancer.org as its website address, estimated new breast cancer cases for women under 45 at 26,660, 26,500 and 26,510, respectively. In 2022, the organization estimated new breast cancer cases for women under 50 − not just women under 45 − would total 47,550.

In 2023, the American Cancer Society estimates there will be 297,790 new cases in women from all age groups, not just women under 45. The organization also estimates an additional 55,720 cases of ductal carcinoma, which is cancer of the cells that line milk ducts in the breast.

For women under 45, the American Cancer Society estimated 2,340, 2,320 and 2,310 breast cancer deaths for the years 2019, 2020 and 2021, respectively. For women under 50, the organization estimated 4,040 breast cancer deaths in 2022 and 3,780 in 2023.

The video implies the purported increase in breast cancer deaths was due to the COVID-19 vaccine. However, there is no evidence connecting the vaccine to breast cancer, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine and Penn Medicine.

The COVID-19 vaccine can cause lymph nodes in the armpit to swell. That may sometimes lead to a health scare because swollen lymph nodes can also be a symptom of breast cancer.

"While lymph node swelling experienced by some women post-vaccine can be misinterpretedas cancer, it is not cancer," Penn Medicine reported.

Fact check: Thousands of COVID-19 cases still reported every week

USA TODAY reached out to the Instagram user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

The post was also debunked by PolitiFact.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Video exaggerates breast cancer deaths in women under 45 | Fact check