A recent study reveals that specific types of early-onset cancer are becoming more prevalent among younger adults in the United States. This trend appears to be influenced by an increase in cancer cases among women and individuals in their 30s.
Published in the journal JAMA Network Open, this government-funded study examined data from 17 National Cancer Institute registries. The study analyzed over 500,000 instances of early-onset cancer, referring to cancers diagnosed in individuals under the age of 50, spanning from 2010 to 2019. The findings of the study indicate a general rise in early-onset cancers over this decade, with an average annual increase of 0.28%.
This most recent study was an analysis using information gathered from 17 National Cancer Institute Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results registries spanning from January 1, 2010, to December 31, 2019. The study encompassed data from over 560,000 patients who had been diagnosed with early-onset cancer (cancer that occurs before age 50).
Throughout this period, the research team observed a general increase in the rates of early-onset cancers, particularly among females. Conversely, the rates of such cancers displayed a decline among males.
In 2019, the highest incidence of early-onset cancer cases were cases of breast cancer, totaling 12,649 cases. However, over the course of the study, gastrointestinal cancers demonstrated the most rapid growth in early-onset cancer rates. Among gastrointestinal cancers, the appendix exhibited the swiftest rise in incidence rates, followed by cancers affecting the bile duct and pancreas.
Doctors are adamant that the findings are important. “We are well aware that there is an increase in colorectal cancer in younger people under age 50, but we weren’t aware that the cancers that are growing more rapidly are more unusual cancers like appendix cancer and biliary cancers,” said Dr. Anton Bilchik, a surgical oncologist and chief of medicine at Saint John’s Cancer Institute in Santa Monica, California.