Cancer Diagnosis Rates Are Rising in Younger Adults in the U.S., New Study Finds

Cancer diagnosis rates in younger people have risen in the United States in recent years, according to a new study.

Earlier this week, a government-funded study of 17 National Cancer Institute registries was published in the journal JAMA Network Open, which looked at more than 500,000 cases of cancers diagnosed in patients under age 50 between 2010 and 2019.

In its findings, the study determined that early-onset cancers increased over the time period by an average of 0.28 percent each year, with rates of cancer in younger women going up an average of 4.4 percent, while rates decreased in men by almost five percent.

The study also found that cancer diagnosis rates went down in adults 50 and older.

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Looking specifically at race, the study found that early-onset cancers increased the most among people who identify as American Indian or Alaska Natives, as well as for Asians and Hispanics.

Researchers similarly found that the rates remained stable in White people and decreased in Black individuals between the years studied.

The early-onset cancer cases that saw the biggest increase, per the study, were cancers of the appendix (252 percent), cancers of the bile duct (142 percent) and uterine cancer (76 percent).

Cancers with the highest diagnosis cases in the last year of the study, 2019, were breast (12,649), thyroid (5,869) and colorectal cancers (4,097).

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Speaking with HealthDay, Dr. John Ricci, the chief of colorectal surgery at the Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Great Neck, New York, said, “We are already seeing younger patients.”

He added, “We used to say 40s was extremely abnormal, but we’re definitely seeing more [cases] in the 30s than we had before.”

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education