Doctors around the world are sounding the alarm over a growing epidemic of young people being diagnosed with cancers more commonly associated with the elderly.
Between 1990 and 2019, cases of cancer among young people across the globe increased by 79 percent and deaths increased by 28 percent.
Studies Project diagnoses will continue to increase by 31 percent and deaths will increase by 21 percent by 2030.
Almost all continents are experiencing an increase in various types of cancer in people under the age of 50, which is particularly problematic as the disease tends to be caught at later stages in this population because most doctors are not trained to look for it in young people.
The differences in frequencies and types of the disease have puzzled scientists and prompted some to launch multi-decade research projects that will involve hundreds of thousands of people from around the world.
Globally, Australia has seen the highest number of early-onset cancer diagnoses in the world, with a rate of 135 per year. 100,000 people.
Neighboring New Zealand has the second highest rate, with 119 cases in people under 50 per year. 100,000 people.
But while breast cancer is the number one disease in Australia, colon cancer ranks first in its neighbour.
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The above shows the most common type of cancer in each country
The graph above shows the change in cancer cases worldwide
In Asia, Japan and South Korea may be close to each other and similar economically, but they have different rates of early-onset colon cancer, which is rising faster in South Korea.
The United States falls to sixth place with 87 cases per 100,000 people under the age of 50, and the UK ranks 28th with 70.5 cases per 100,000 people.
Cancers that are rising the fastest include throat and prostate cancer. Early-onset cancers with the highest mortality rates include animal, trachea (trachea), lung, stomach and colon.
Experts have long speculated that rising obesity rates and earlier cancer screenings may be behind the increase, as well as high-fat diet, alcohol consumption and tobacco use.
But because lifestyles, habits and diets vary so much from country to country, they now believe that these factors are not entirely responsible for the increase.
Daniel Huang, a hepatologist at the National University of Singapore, told Naturen: ‘Many have assumed that things like obesity and alcohol consumption can explain some of our results. But it looks like you need a deeper dive into the data.’
More recent researchers have begun to focus on a genetic component to early-onset cancer. Some have found that younger people develop more aggressive tumors than older patients, which are better at suppressing a person’s immune system.
Harvard Medical School pathologist Shuji Ogino and his colleagues have also discovered a weakened immune response in people with early-onset tumors.
Still, however, the differences are subtle, Ogino said, and a clear cause cannot be determined.
A new field of research is the impact on early-onset cancer of the body’s microbiome, the collection of all microbes, such as bacteria, fungi, viruses and their genes, that naturally live in the human body.
The microbiome can be ‘disturbed’ by dietary changes and increased antibiotic consumption. The disruption of the microbiome can lead to inflammation, which has been linked to an increase in several diseases, including cancer.
However, more extensive research needs to be done on the matter.
Of particular concern is colon cancer among young people. Data has shown that the number of cases among people aged 20 to 34 increased 40 percent between 2010 and 2020.
And it is predicted that they will increase 90 percent by 2030.
Colon and rectal cancer is the third most common type in the United States and the third leading cause of death in both men and women.
The above shows the most common types of cancer and their mortality in all countries around the world
The graph above shows the change in cancer death rates around the world
The above shows where cancer is the most frequent cause of premature death
The ACS estimates that about 153,000 cases of colorectal cancer will be detected this year, including 19,500 among those under the age of 50.
Approximately 53,000 people are expected to die from the disease.
As experts look to combat the epidemic, it was recently announced that a blood test to screen for colon cancer worked well in a study.
The test, made by Guardant Health, is not FDA-approved but is expected to be this year.
It looks for DNA fragments of tumor cells and precancerous growths and is on sale in the US for $895.
In the recent study, it caught 83 percent of cancers, but doctors still recommend that people get a colonoscopy — the gold screening standard — at different ages based on their own risk factors.
Around the world, breast cancer is the most common disease in dozens of countries, including the US, UK, Canada, India, South Africa, Australia and Mexico, which may be due to more accessible screenings.
It is followed by prostate cancer, according to the World Health Organization.
To tackle the epidemic, researchers are starting to collaborate between several countries to explore the topic, but experts stress that decades of data must be analyzed before the true cause is revealed.
Epidemiologist Barbara Cohn of the Public Health Institute in Oakland, Calif., said cancer can occur years after exposure to a possible carcinogen, such as cigarettes or chemicals.
She said: ‘If the latent period is decades, where do you look? We believe that you should look as early as possible in life to understand this.’
To do so, the researchers are looking to collect 60 years of data on thousands of people who have developed early-onset cancer worldwide
A preliminary review of biological samples from expectant mothers dating back to 1959, whose children the researchers have followed since, found a possible link between early-onset colon cancer and exposure in the womb to a synthetic version of the hormone progesterone, which is sometimes used. to prevent premature birth.
Dr. Edward Kim, chief physician at City of Hope, a top cancer hospital in California, called cancer in young people ‘a growing epidemic that we observe in the clinic.’
Oncologists who told CBS the incidence of cancer in young people under 50 is highest for breast, colon and lung cancer.
While screenings have increased in some areas and cancer deaths in the U.S. have declined — although experts say the decline is not fast enough — the number of cases of some cancers continues to rise.
Brandon Arbini, 41, was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer and had to have one foot of his colon removed.
He told CBS: ‘Cancer, especially colon cancer, is no longer a disease of the elderly. It’s happening to more and more young people’.
Other cancers on the rise include uterine cancer – with a two percent increase since the mid-1990s in people under 50, according to an article published by Nature.
Juliette Landgrave, diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer at 38, said she has seen women as young as 20 with the same disease.
Cases of early-onset breast cancer increased by four per cent each year between 2016 and 2019 – although deaths from the disease have fallen.
Landgrave said: ‘I’ve seen in my triple negative cancer groups women who are 20; just starting their lives with being diagnosed with this horrible disease. So I’m lucky that I could feel the lump and I was able to speak for myself.’