Rising Breast Cancer Cases Under 50 in England Fuel Calls to Lower Screening Age to 40

New figures showing rising rates of several cancers among people under 50 in England underline the need to consider the age at which women are first invited for routine breast screening, according to cancer charity Walk the Walk.

Analysis by the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF), published this week, shows increases in seven types of cancer among people under 50 in England between 2001 and 2023. The WCRF examined NHS data and found significant increases in breast, bowel, kidney, womb, prostate, pancreatic, and liver cancers.

The number of breast cancer cases was substantially higher than for the other cancers analysed. In 2023, 8,507 women under the age of 50 were diagnosed with breast cancer in England, up from 6,886 in 2001. The next highest number was for bowel cancer, with 2,989 cases. There were 1,065 kidney cancer cases, 698 cases of womb cancer, 640 prostate cancer cases, 346 pancreatic cancer cases, and 278 liver cancer cases among people under 50 in 2023.

Incidence rates provide further context. Breast cancer rates among women under 50 rose from 42 per 100,000 in 2001 to 47.5 per 100,000 in 2023. Prostate cancer rates among men under 50 more than tripled, while rates for bowel, kidney, and womb cancers at least doubled over the same period.

Walk the Walk is campaigning for the NHS to lower the starting age for routine breast screening from 50 to 40. The charity argues that women should have the opportunity to detect breast cancer earlier, when treatment can be more effective, potentially less invasive, and more likely to offer wider options and better outcomes.

Chemotherapy Nurse and Walk the Walk Clinical Ambassador Gemma Reeves has also supported the campaign. She launched a petition that reached 106,000 signatures and took the issue to Parliament in a Westminster Hall debate, drawing cross party attention. Through her work as a chemotherapy nurse, Reeves has seen the human impact of later diagnoses.

Reeves said: “These new figures are staggering and exactly why I started my petition to lower the age for breast screening in the first place, I just couldn’t ignore the increasing number of younger women coming for treatment. These are so much more than just figures on a page. These are thousands of women under 50 who have received a life changing diagnosis and who never expected to hear the words ‘you have breast cancer’. Lowering the starting age for breast screening is about giving women the best possible chance of finding breast cancer early and for it to be treated successfully. These latest figures make me even more determined that the breast screening age must be lowered.”

The NHS breast screening programme currently screens women aged 50 to under 71. Women receive their first invitation between the ages of 50 and 53 and are then invited every three years. Those aged 71 and over can still request screening but are not automatically invited.

Walk the Walk’s latest public survey, conducted in September 2026, found strong support for lowering the starting age. Around 9 in 10 people surveyed (91%) backed lowering the starting age for routine breast screening from 50 to 40. Almost 8 in 10 (79%) personally know someone who was diagnosed with breast cancer before the age of 50.

The charity points out that breast cancer is the most common cancer in the UK and that thousands of cases continue to be diagnosed outside the current screening age range each year. It continues to press for faster progress while further evidence from trials such as AgeX is awaited.