New cancer diagnoses in the U.S. are expected to top 2 million for the first time in 2024, driven in large part by an alarming increase in cancers among younger Americans, according to new American Cancer Society data.
There have been better improvements in cancer survival, but there’s a worrying rise in some cancers at the same time doctors are trying to figure out why they’re seeing more young patients with cancer.
This demographic shift comes with psychological, physical and financial burdens that are less common with older patients, experts say.
Patients under 50 are more likely to be uninsured, juggling career and caregiving responsibilities, and face a higher lifetime risk of treatment-related side effects like second cancers.
“It’s overwhelming for anybody, but especially for these younger patients who are going on with their daily lives and then suddenly get this life-altering diagnosis and really don’t know where to turn,” said Robin Mendelsohn, co-director of the Center for Young Onset Colorectal and Gastrointestinal Cancers at Memorial Sloan Kettering.
“Many feel alone because they’re younger, their friends, many haven’t had to deal with this.”
The proportion of people 65 and older diagnosed with cancer dropped from 61% to 58% in the last 30 years, even as the size of that group increased. The proportion of those diagnosed between ages 50-64 was largely stable.
“Notably, people aged younger than 50 years were the only one of these three age groups to experience an increase in overall cancer incidence during this time period,” the ACS report said.
Doctors don’t know exactly what’s behind the uptick in new cases and deaths among younger patients in many cases.
While new cases of colorectal cancer — the leading cause of cancer death in men under 50 and the second-leading cause of cancer death in women under 50 — have been declining among adults 65 and older, they’ve increased 1% to 2% annually in people younger than 55 since the mid-1990s.
“Colorectal cancers are also presenting with more aggressive disease and larger tumors at diagnosis,” said ACS chief scientific officer William Dahut.
Researchers are examining whether long-term factors like consumption of red meat or ultra-processed food, medication and vitamin use, and obesity are contributing to this shift.
“Cancer obviously takes time to grow, especially colon cancer. So we think it’s probably exposures from decades prior,” Mendelsohn said.
Preliminary MSK research found significant differences in the microbiomes of early-onset colorectal cancer patients compared with older ones. More research is needed but “this might be a signal,” she said.
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