Take a look at a health news feed on any given day, and there’s a good chance you’ll see an article related to colon cancer, specifically the alarming rise in young people. In fact, about 10 percent of all new colon cancer cases in the U.S. are diagnosed in people under 50, according to the Colorectal Cancer Alliance. And that number is rising about one to two percent each year in this age group, making it the “deadliest cancer among young men and the second deadliest among young women.”
However, a shocking new study suggests that it’s far from just colon cancer we need to be worrying about among young Americans. Researchers found that 14 types of cancer are increasing in people under 50.
RELATED: 50% of Colon Cancer Cases in Young People Tied to 1 Common Factor, Researchers Discover.
Early-onset cancers increased between 2010 and 2019.
The new study, conducted by researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), was recently published in Cancer Discovery, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR).
To arrive at their findings, the researchers analyzed cancer incidence (2010–2019) and mortality numbers (2010–2022) in the U.S. to understand if cancer rates are increasing among those under 50. Specifically, they looked at 33 cancer types based on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) United States Cancer Statistics database.
They then categorized the data into six age groups, according to a press release: three early-onset (15-29 years, 20-39 years, and 40-49 years) and three older-onset (50-59 years, 60-69 years, and 70-79 years).
Shockingly, they determined that rates of 14 of these cancer types are rising among young Americans. Between 2010 and 2019, the scientists pinpointed 2,020,829 cases of early-onset cancer, 63 percent of which were diagnosed in females.
“This study provides a starting point for understanding which cancers are increasing among individuals under age 50,” said lead investigator Meredith Shiels, PhD, cancer epidemiologist at the NIH’s National Cancer Institute. “The causes of these increases are likely to be cancer specific, including cancer risk factors becoming more common at younger ages, changes in cancer screening or detection, and updates to clinical diagnosis or coding of cancers.”
RELATED: Experts Raise Alarm on The Most Lethal Disease in America: “It’s Killing Every 34 Seconds.”
These 14 cancer types are rising in Americans under 50.
According to the research, rates of 14 cancer types are rising in Americans under 50. The following nine cancer types are also rising in older adults:
- Female breast cancer
- Colorectal cancer
- Kidney cancer
- Testicular cancer
- Uterine cancer
- Pancreatic cancer
- Precursor B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma
- Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma
- Mycosis fungoides/Sézary syndrome
However, rates of five cancer types only rose among young adults:
- Melanoma
- Plasma cell neoplasms
- Cervical cancer
- Stomach cancer
- Cancer of the bones and joints
Among female patients, the most common early-onset cancers were breast cancer, thyroid cancer, and melanoma. Among male patients, they were colorectal cancer, testicular cancer, and melanoma.
Another press release details the following statistics:
“The greatest increases in the number of early-onset diagnoses in 2019 compared to what was expected based on 2010 incidence rates were seen in female breast cancer, colorectal cancer, kidney cancer, and uterine cancer—together, these accounted for more than 80% of the additional cancer diagnoses in 2019 compared with 2010.”
Additionally, four of the cancer types also had increasing mortality rates: testicular cancer, uterine cancer, colorectal cancer, and cancer of the bones and joints.
Conversely, the rates of lung cancer and prostate cancer decreased among people under age 50.
RELATED: Walking This Many Steps Can Reduce Your Risk of 13 Types of Cancer.
What does the data mean for Americans?
The researchers are hopeful that this data will lead to increased awareness and better prevention and treatment for early-onset cancers.
“Descriptive data like these provide a critical starting point for understanding the drivers of rising rates of cancer in early-onset age groups and could translate to effective cancer prevention and early detection efforts,” said Shiels. “As one example, recent guidelines have lowered the age of initiation for breast and colorectal cancer screening based, at least partially, on observations that rates for these cancers are increasing at younger ages.”
“The increasing incidence of many cancer types in younger and older age groups suggests that there may be risk factors that impact cancer development across ages or advances in screening or imaging technologies that allow cancers to be detected more frequently than before,” she added.
However, one limitation of the study was that information on patients’ cancer risk factors was limited. Therefore, the researchers hope to conduct additional studies that “examine trends in early-onset cancers across demographics and geography in the U.S. and internationally,” notes the press release. They also would like to more specifically study the cancer risk factors that are affecting people under 50.
Content shared from bestlifeonline.com.