A sweeping new study is widening the lens on a puzzling uptick in a range of cancers occurring among younger generations of patients.
It’s the latest evidence that the burden of cancer could rise in the future despite major advances in treatment and prevention.
The study from the American Cancer Society found adults in their 30s, 40s and 50s are far more likely than their parents were to develop 17 different types of cancers, including breast, liver and pancreatic cancers.
Previous research has indicated alarming increases in certain cancers among younger adults, such as colorectal cancer.
A National Cancer Institute study published in June concluded Gen X-ers were more likely to be diagnosed with cancer as they aged than previous generations, NPR reported in June.
“It’s really sort of scary to see all in one data set,” said Andrea Cercek, co-director of the Center for Young Onset Colorectal and Gastrointestinal Cancers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
“But it definitely reflects what we’ve known and what we’ve noticed as well in our clinics,” said Cercek, who wasn’t involved in the study. “We really have no idea why.”
The study used data from 23.6 million patients dating back to 1920 through 1990 to classify people based on their birth year because they’re more likely to share social, economic and environmental factors during key developmental years.
Of 34 cancers examined, half had increased incidence among younger adults, according to the study published Wednesday in the Lancet.
Incidence of eight different cancers increased with each successive age cohort after 1920.
In particular, adults born in the 1990 cohort were two or three times more likely to get cancers of the small intestines, kidney and pancreas (as well as the liver and bile duct in women) compared to those in born in the 1955 cohort at the same age.
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