Forms Of Cancers Are Increasing In Gen Xers and Millennials
A new study published in the Lancet Public Health journal revealed members of Generation X and millennials face higher risk of certain cancers in comparison to earlier generations, The Hill reported.
American Cancer Society (ACS) researchers studied more than 30 of the most common cancers. They found the cancer rates increased progressively in younger generations in 17 of the cancers such as breast, pancreatic, and gastric cancers.
Researchers also found that of eight of the 17 studied cancers, rates have shown growth since 1920. Nine of 17 cancers showed increased rates in younger individuals following a decline in older ones. Lead author of the study, Hyuna Sung, stated the results weren’t surprising, as evidence has shown similar findings.
“These findings add to growing evidence of increased cancer risk in post-Baby Boomer generations, expanding on previous findings of early-onset colorectal cancer and a few obesity-associated cancers to encompass a broader range of cancer types,” Sung said.
The study pointed out the need to find and combat the “underlying risk factors in Gen X and Millennial populations” in order to explain why cancer risks are rising in younger generations. Chief scientific officer for the American Cancer Society, William Dahut, highlighted uterine cancer as one form with alarming rates.
“Uterine cancer is one that really jumps out where we see tremendous increases. It has about a 169% higher incidence rate if you’re born in the 1990s as opposed to if you’re born in the 1950s – and this is for people at the same age,” Dahut said, according to CNN.
“Someone born in the 1950s, when they were in their 30s or 40s, saw a different incidence rate compared with someone born in the 1990s in their 30s or 40s.”
Data used for the study came from more than 23 million patients diagnosed with 34 types of cancers between Jan. 1, 2000, and Dec. 31, 2019. The mortality data from more than 7 million deaths for 25 types of cancers was also studied during the same period of time with participants ranging in age between 25 and 84. The incidence rate ratios of each birth cohort was then calculated and adjusted for “age effect and period effect.”
The rate was close to two to three times higher for pancreatic, kidney, and small intestinal cancers in both men and women and for liver cancer in women, for those born in 1990 than those born in 1955. For specific types of cancers, the increased rate among people born in 1990 grew 12% higher for ovarian cancer and 169% higher for uterine corpus cancer in comparison to birth cohorts with the lowest incidence rates.
Senior author of the study, Ahmedin Jemal, provided a clear warning on the rise in cancer rates in young patients.
“The increase in cancer rates among this younger group of people indicate generational shifts in cancer risk and often serve as an early indicator of future cancer burden in the country,” Jemal said.
“Without effective population-level interventions, and as the elevated risk in younger generations is carried over as individuals age, an overall increase in cancer burden could occur in the future, halting or reversing decades of progress against the disease.”
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