Cancer is on the rise among adults under 50, new research suggests.
According to a study by researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, and published this week in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology.
The likely culprit? An increasingly sedentary lifestyle and a Western diet packed with processed foods.
While increased cancer detection at younger ages plays a role in the increase in early-stage cancer, improved screening alone is not responsible for the increase in 14 different cancers in adults under the age of 50 from 2000 to 2012, researchers said.
“Any successive group of people born at a later date has a higher risk of developing cancer later in life, probably due to risk factors they were exposed to at a young age,” says Dr. Shuji Ogino, a professor and physician-scientist in Brigham and Women’s Hospital’s pathology department, summarizes the research on the hospital’s website.
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For example, those born in 1960 have a higher risk of developing cancer than those born in 1950. “We found that this risk increases with each generation,” Ogino said. “We predict that this level of risk will continue to rise in successive generations.”
The median age for a cancer diagnosis is 66, according to the National Cancer Institute.
Certain cancer risk factors, including “highly processed foods, sugary drinks, obesity, type 2 diabetes, sedentary lifestyle and alcohol use,” have all increased since the 1950s, the researchers said.
Researchers did not identify specific increases in risk in the various cancers. But in general, more people worldwide are less healthy. That unhealthy behavior likely increases cancer rates at a younger age, they said.
“Of the 14 emerging cancers we studied, eight were related to the digestive system. The food we eat nourishes the microorganisms in our gut,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Tomotaka Ugai, also in the hospital’s pathology department, in the summary. “Ultimately, these changes may affect disease risk and outcomes.”
Researchers around the world should work together to better track global trends and a possible global cancer epidemic, the researchers said. More in-depth lifelong studies with children can also help track possible effects of environmental factors. And ongoing research should include specimens of cancers to determine possible differences between early-onset cases and those found later in life.
“Not only is this more cost-effective given the many types of cancer to be studied, but I believe it will give us more accurate insights into cancer risk for generations to come,” Ugai said.
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