The strange case of a 7-year-old Chilean girl who was diagnosed with breast cancer

The news generated a great impact that a 7-year-old Chilean girl, a native of the Quillota commune, a town located just over 100 kilometers northwest of the capital Santiago, was diagnosed with breast cancer when she was only 6. This pathology, by the way, usually occurs in adult women, so the case of Chile is “extremely rare.”

It all started when Patricia Muñoz, mother of the minor, noticed something strange under her daughter’s nipple while she was drying her after taking a bath two years ago. A few days later, the woman consulted a doctor in Quillota, who recommended more in-depth examinations because the lump, which was not normal, “could grow.”

A year later, in October 2022, after avoiding delays in public health care, a biopsy revealed cancer. About to turn seven years old, the girl she had to undergo a mastectomy of her left breast.

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Meanwhile, the girl’s family is awaiting the results of postoperative tests because, at the moment, the next steps to treat someone her age are not clear. If there are no metastases, people with cancer undergo a radiation process, but in the case of the Chilean girl there are no records due to her young age, he said. Felipe Tagle, President of the Chilean Association of Cancer Patients, who advises the family.

The doctor himself pointed out that “there is no similar case worldwide, the only similar one that exists is that of a girl who was detected with a similar cancer at the age of 10 in the United States. This may be a case of 400 million.”

Following the same line, the case of the minor is very strange in the world; In fact, there is hardly any medical literature because the vast majority of women who have breast cancer are diagnosed between the ages of 50 and 60. ” A case of a girl under the age of seven is completely anecdotalsaid Francisco Barriga, a pediatric hematologist and oncologist at the Catholic University of Chile.

It is normal for the breasts to change as they enter adolescence. The rises and falls of female hormones, such as estrogen and progesterone, can cause the breasts to become tender. Hormones can also cause some lumps and lumps to appear on the breasts as your period comes and goes each month.

He Dr. Nicolás Droppelmannhead of the Breast Cancer Program at the Clínica Universidad de Los Andes indicated that “it is extremely important to emphasize that this tumor in children is tremendously rare and what can most frequently occur is melarchy, which is the appearance of a breast button As part of pubertal development in females, which can be asymmetrical, one side may develop before the other.”

“Generally, it is said that this pathology can occur from the age of 15, and of the total number of cancers that occur in women, only 5% occur between the ages of 15-39, “and generally much closer to 35-39 years”adds Droppelmann.

The lumps and bumps are unlikely, however, to be cancerous, according to the Breast Cancer Research and Support Organization Breast Cancer Nowwhich indicates that it is ”almost unheard of for girls 14 and under to develop breast cancer”. The chances increase slightly as girls move into their teens, but breast cancer in this age group is still very rare.

It should be noted that, between 2012 and 2016, the incidence rate of female breast cancer in youth ages 15 to 19 in the US was 0.1 in 100,000. This is equivalent to one adolescent in a million, according to the statistics of a 2020 study published by the American Cancer Society (ACS), which is why the Chilean case turns out to be so extraordinary.

Breast cancer tumors can feel different from other normal lumps. Nipple discharge or having an inverted (inverted) nipple are possible symptoms of breast cancer in adult women, according to the ACS. However, the scientific community is not entirely sure what causes breast cancer in adolescents (or girls) because there are very few (or none) cases.

“My daughter is mutilated and that is the pain that I have, because that is, it is strong for an adult person. I have pictures of my daughter and I cry. The only thing that she has mentioned to me when I take her to the oncologist is that she does not want to be bald, but beyond that she does not understand that she does not have her breast, ”said her mother in relation to the treatment she is undergoing out the girl

According to official data, In Chile, breast cancer ranks first in mortality from this type of disease in women. In this sense, it is estimated that one in eight could develop this condition throughout their lives.

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