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Edited by: TJVNews.com
Cancer rates among young people have taken a distressing and unexpected turn, bucking the overall trend of declining rates among older individuals, as was reported by the New York Post. Startling findings from a recent study published in JAMA Network Open have revealed a significant rise in cancer cases among those aged 30 to 39 years. The Post report indicated that the decade spanning from 2010 to 2019 witnessed an almost 20% surge in cancer rates within this age group, sounding an urgent alarm for public health experts and society as a whole.
The study highlights a particularly concerning gender disparity. The increase in early-onset cancers among women stood at 4.4%, while men experienced a drop of almost 5% in the number of cases, according to the report in the Post. The implications of this rising trend are profound, as it challenges the conventional understanding that cancer primarily affects older individuals. In fact, the Post report said that the data suggests that people in their 30s are now facing cancer diagnoses more frequently than in previous years.
Dr. John Ricci, Chief of Colorectal Surgery at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Great Neck, NY expressed his concern, noting that the medical community is witnessing more cancer cases in their 30s than ever before. As was noted in the Post report, he emphasized that this reality contradicts historical norms where cancer diagnoses were rare at such a young age.
“We are already seeing younger patients,” Dr. Ricci told Healthday as was reported by the Post. “We used to say 40s was extremely abnormal, but we’re definitely seeing more cases in the 30s than we had before,” Ricci added.
The study highlights specific types of cancer that have shown significant increases among young adults. Breast cancer cases, for instance, surged by about 8% during the study period. However, the Post report indicated that the most alarming rise was observed in gastrointestinal cancers, including colon, appendix, bile duct, and pancreatic cancers, which escalated by a staggering 15% within the ten-year timeframe.
This emerging trend echoes findings from a March study published in Science, which specifically identified a significant uptick in colorectal cancer rates. The researchers noted an alarming annual increase of 2 to 4% in early-onset colorectal cancer since the 1990s, with even sharper rises among individuals under 30 years of age.
“Since the 1990s, the age-adjusted incidence of early-onset colorectal cancer has risen at an alarming rate of 2 to 4% per year in many countries, with even sharper increases in individuals younger than 30 years,” the study authors wrote, according to the Post report.
Familiar culprits are behind this worrying surge in early-onset cancers: obesity, alcohol consumption, smoking, and sedentary lifestyles. The Post reported that experts point to increasing obesity rates among young adults, along with substantial changes in dietary habits that involve higher sugar and fat consumption, as potential driving factors. A study from last month reinforced the link between obesity and cancer, identifying 18 different types of cancer associated with being overweight or obese. The study found that individuals who were overweight during early adulthood, between the ages of 18 and 40, faced an increased cancer risk.
Hyuna Sung, cancer surveillance researcher at the American Cancer Society, told HealthDay that “suspected risk factors may involve increasing obesity among children and young adults; also the drastic change in our diet, like increasing consumption of sugar, sweetened beverages and high fat.”
