Understanding Early Onset Breast Cancer, Part I

Objectives

Early onset breast cancer, defined as breast cancer occurring in women under the age of 45, accounts for approximately 10% of new breast cancer cases in the United States. Younger women tend to experience more aggressive disease, higher risk of recurrence and death, and more long-term survivorship issues than older women.

ACOG is pleased to offer this free online course that covers factors that contribute to increased risk for early onset breast cancer, including genetic and racial/ethnic risk factors, breast density, family history, and prior health history.

The learning objectives are to:

• Identify various risk factors for early onset breast cancer and how strong of a predictor each risk factor is

• Identify current society guidelines and recommendations for early onset breast cancer screening and distinguish the points of differentiation

• Identify existing data, including gaps, about breast density and cancer risk

Developed through a partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, this course is available to women’s health care practitioners including obstetrician–gynecologists, nurses, nurse practitioners, nurse midwives, physician assistants, family physicians, medical students and residents, and allied health professionals.

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Credits

ACCME Accreditation

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists designates this enduring material for a maximum of 7 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

College Cognate Credit(s)

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists designates this enduring material for a maximum of 7 Category 1 College Cognate Credits. The College has a reciprocity agreement with the AMA that allows AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™ to be equivalent to College Cognate Credits.

American Nurses Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation

This nursing continuing professional development activity was approved by the Maryland Nurses Association, an accredited approver by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. The last date learners will be able to access this activity to receive contact hours is April 23, 2026.

Evaluation Survey

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Conflict of Interest Disclosure

Faculty and Planner Disclosure

Conflict of interest disclosure for faculty, planning committee, reviewers, and staff:

This project was supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the Department of Health and Human Services under cooperative agreement number 6 NU38OT000287-02-02, which was awarded to ACOG. All authors received a one-time payment from ACOG for their participation in the development of Early Onset Breast Cancer materials.

All authors, contributors, reviewers, and staff have submitted a conflict of interest disclosure statement, and any potential conflicts have been considered and managed in accordance with ACOG’s Conflict of Interest Disclosure Policy. This policy, along with ACOG’s Privacy Policy, can be found on acog.org.

The following activity planning members reported financial relationship(s): 

• Dena Goldberg, MS
  Created Educational Content: Illumina

The following activity planning members reported no financial relationships:

• David Chelmow, MD

• Myrlene Jeudy, MD

• Laura Bozzuto, MD

• Sandra Dayaratna, MD

• Mallory Kremer, MD

• Mark Pearlman, MD

• Amy Young, MD

• Julia O’Hara

• Sarah Cole, MD

• Rachel Gorham Fidino, MSN

• Shirley Mei, MD

• Dana Scott, MD

All staff reported no relevant financial relationships.

Content Validity

All recommendations involving clinical medicine are based on evidence accepted within the profession of medicine as adequate justification for their indications and contraindications in the care of patients; AND/OR All scientific research referred to or reported in support or justification of a patient care recommendation conforms to generally accepted standards of experimental design, data collection, and analysis.