Cancer cases are rising among younger Americans: new study

Cancer experts have discovered a grim new trend: Rates of cancer among young people have risen sharply in recent years — even as rates have dropped among people older than 50.

The biggest increase occurred among people aged 30 to 39 years, whose rates of cancer jumped almost 20% between 2010 and 2019, according to a new study published in JAMA Network Open.

And most of the increase has occurred among women: Early-onset cancers in women increased by 4.4%, while among men the number of cases dropped by almost 5%.

“We are already seeing younger patients,” Dr. John Ricci, chief of colorectal surgery at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Great Neck, New York, told HealthDay.

“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 authors found that specific cancers accounted for most of the rise in cases among younger people: Breast cancer cases, for example, increased by about 8% over the study period.

But gastrointestinal cancers — including colon, appendix, bile duct and pancreatic cancers — increased an alarming 15% during the 10-year study period, making them the fastest-rising types of cancer.

Those new findings confirm the results of an earlier study from March, published in Science, which found that rates of colorectal cancer have jumped significantly in recent years.

“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.

And the causes of the recent spike in early-onset cancers are familiar ones: obesity, alcohol, smoking and a sedentary lifestyle.

“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,” Hyuna Sung, cancer surveillance researcher at the American Cancer Society, told HealthDay.

Another study, published last month, found that 18 different cancers were linked to being obese or overweight. Specifically, the researchers found that people who were overweight in early adulthood — ages 18 to 40 — had an increased risk of cancer.

Sung also pointed to a lack of physical activity as a contributor to cancer. Indeed, a recent study found that young men with high levels of fitness were less likely to develop cancer later in life, including esophagus, stomach, pancreas, liver, bowel, kidney and lung cancers.

Researchers are concerned that as more young people develop cancer at increasing rates, it may spell trouble for them when — or if — they grow older.

“The increase in cancers among young adults has significant implications,” said Sung, who was not involved in the new study. “It is something we need to consider as a bellwether for future trends.”

“Increased efforts are required to combat the risk factors for early-onset cancer, such as obesity, heavy alcohol consumption and smoking,” study co-author Dr. Daniel Q. Huang, assistant professor of medicine at the National University of Singapore, told HealthDay.