Science can claim many battlefield victories in the war on cancer. The overall rate of new cases is stable, and death rates are falling, on average, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
However, one disturbing trend has emerged: a rise in cancer diagnoses among younger people.
Early-onset cancers, defined as those that appear before the age of 50, are becoming more prevalent in the United States and elsewhere, according to recent research published in a scientific journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.
NIH researchers looked at two large sets of nationwide data — from death certificates and cancer registries — to analyze the incidence of, and mortality trends for, 33 types of cancer from 2010 to 2019.
During that period, the rates of 14 types of cancer increased in younger people. Those cancers include:
- Breast (in females)
- Colorectal
- Kidney
- Testicular
- Uterine
- Pancreatic
- Three types of blood cancer (lymphomas)
- Melanoma
- Cervical
- Stomach
- Bones and joints
- Plasma cell neoplasms
In addition, the death rate among younger people climbed notably for colorectal, uterine and testicular cancers, the NIH says.
In a summary of the findings, the NIH National Cancer Center’s Dr. Meredith Shiels — who led the research — says:
“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.”
The news is not all bad, however. For 19 of the types of cancer the NIH researchers analyzed, the rate of early-onset cases is in decline. This includes both lung and prostate cancer.
To learn how you can lower your own cancer risk, check out “7 Things You Can (and Should) Do Right Now to Avoid Cancer.”
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