Aug. 1, 2024 – The list of cancer types that are more likely to strike young people just grew substantially. Millennials and Generation Xers are now more likely to be diagnosed with 17 types of cancer, compared to Baby Boomers, during early adulthood and middle age.
The findings were published Thursday in the journal Lancet Public Health, and the authors warned that the numbers suggest an eventual halt or reversal of decades of progress in cancer rates. They called the reasons for rising cancer rates among young people “poorly understood” but pointed to other research that has linked some cancers earlier in life with obesity, poor diet, environmental impacts, changes in reproductive patterns, and lifestyle factors such as lack of exercise and poor sleep.
While the risk of getting certain cancers rose among young people, the risk of dying from most of those cancers did not follow in lockstep, perhaps pointing toward effective screenings and treatments. But young people were more likely to die of cancers of the gallbladder, testes, colon or rectum, uterus, and (among women only) liver.
“The data highlights the critical need to identify and address underlying risk factors in Gen X and Millennial populations to inform prevention strategies,” said study author Ahmedin Jemal, DVM, PhD, of the American Cancer Society, which partnered with researchers at the University of Calgary in Canada on the project. His comments were part of a news release.
Specifically, the study examined how common it was for people to be diagnosed with 34 types of cancer, as well as how likely they were to die from most of those cancer types from the year 2000 to 2019. During that time period, there were more than 23 million people in North America diagnosed with those cancers, and more than 7 million deaths.
Five of the 34 cancer types in the study increased at a concerning and steep rate among young people, starting with those born in 1990, compared to people born in 1955. The rates for the following cancer types doubled or tripled every 5 years among young people:
- In men and women: small intestine, kidney and renal pelvis, and pancreatic cancers
- In women: liver and bile duct cancers
Other cancer types flagged for worrying increases among young people included:
- Estrogen-sensitive breast cancer
- Uterine cancer
- Colorectal cancer
- Gastric and gallbladder and biliary cancers
- Ovarian cancer
- Testicular cancer
- Anal cancer
- Kaposi sarcoma (a cancer of the skin and soft tissues)
- Leukemia
- Myeloma (a type of blood cancer)
- Oral and pharynx cancers (non-HPV types)
“Because most existing cancer care systems in the USA are not tailored to the unique needs of young adults with cancer, targeted [programs] and services are needed,” the authors wrote, adding that more focus is needed to prevent health risks beginning in childhood, infancy, and even prenatal stages.
