Young women sometimes are dismissed when they pursue medical attention for suspicious lumps, bumps, pains, or changes in their breasts -- because breast cancer is not so common in young women and medical professionals may assume that breast cancer is not the culprit for the complaints brought before them by young women. But young women do get breast cancer -- I did at age 34 -- and many times, the tumors found in young breasts are more aggressive than those that appear for older women. So it is critical that young women seek medical attention for anything out-of-the-ordinary. And it is critical that doctors respond with urgency so that breast cancer in young women can be detected early -- and treated appropriately.

Karen Mock did seek medical attention -- because she knew she had breast cancer. But four doctors told her that she was too young for this disease. She was in her early 30s. And by the time she found someone to respond to her concerns, her breast cancer tumor was 9.2 centimeters -- about the size of a grapefruit. The person Mock found was Dr. Judith Hurley at the Sylvester Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine who has spent the past 15 years trying to find the best treatment for women with large breast tumors. She offers great hope for women who may not get an early diagnosis or treatment -- minority women, poor women, and women with no health insurance -- and she has good results in patients with large tumors that have no spread to the lymph nodes or elsewhere in the body. Some patients have been cancer-free for four years after treatment -- which consists of chemotherapy to shrink the tumor, surgery, more chemotherapy, and then radiation. Mock is cancer-free today.

When I entered the medical system after finding my own lump, I was not dismissed -- but I was assured by four doctors that what I felt was probably nothing. I was too young, they said. But they did move me along in the system -- to be cautious -- which revealed via mammogram, ultrasound, and biopsy that my tumor was in fact cancerous. It was caught early and had not spread -- thanks to prompt attention.

Prompt attention is key so that tumors do not grow so large that they resemble grapefruits. But until young women are taken seriously and afforded the best medical attention, at least there are people like Dr. Hurley who can swoop in and make miracles happen.