Britain: Unjustified rise in cancer rates among young people

The increasing number of young people with cancer worries scientists.

When Buddy Scott started experiencing severe stomach pains in 2017, the possibility of cancer never crossed his mind.

The British outdoor photographer and filmmaker was only 34 years old and in great shape. Once his doctor sent him to the hospital for a colonoscopy and asked if he wanted to take part in a trial of a new blood test to detect tumors, he suddenly became wildly agitated.

“I thought it was a good thing to do,” he says, “but I’m not going to be one of those people who understands that.” financial times. Soon after, he received the difficult news. He was suffering from advanced bowel cancer that had spread to the liver.

Scott’s case is no exception to the rule it once was, notes the British newspaper. In the past 30 years, there has been an increase in the number of cancer patients under the age of 50. In fact, the numbers are so impressive that many scientists think it should be called an epidemic.

High rates of cancer among young people

And just to be sure, data from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington School of Medicine shows that over the past three decades (1990-2019), cancer has increased by 22% in the 25-29 age group in developed countries. states, while at 20-34 he set records. By contrast, it has fallen in older age groups, those over 75, since its peak in 2005.

This age shift from cancer was something Scott discovered himself, as when his adventure began he was the youngest of those to have gone to the UK’s National Health System (NHS) for chemotherapy, and it was only recently that he realized the room was 20 years old. .

Researchers do not yet have a concrete explanation for why young people are more likely to develop cancer than older people.

Perhaps explanations can be found in cancers that affect young people, the estimate given above. For example, colon cancer increased by 70% in the group of 20 richest countries in the world in ages 15-39 from 1990 to 2019 compared to other types of cancer. Figures from the American Cancer Society confirm that this year 13% of colon cancers and 7% of related deaths involve people under the age of 50.

Change has dire consequences

Cancer Research UK head Michelle Mitchell explains that age remains the biggest predictor of cancer, with 90% of all cases occurring in people over 50 and half of all cases occurring in people over 75.

However, he acknowledges that the increase in cancer incidence in younger age groups is an important change. “We have to understand this change,” she told the Financial Times.

This trend has economic, clinical and social consequences. For cancer doctors, the aforementioned increase raises major concerns. Dr. Scott, D. Snawaz Rasheed at the Royal Marsden Hospital still remembers with despair the week he operated on four women under the age of 40 who had cancer.

Just last month he had as a very fit international sports patient only 30 years old. “These are the people who have to build their lives… build jobs, raise kids. It just breaks my heart.”

Is the diet to blame for everything?

Scientists searching for answers to the big question of who is responsible for the fact that more and more young people are being diagnosed with cancer are convinced that changes in diet and lifestyle are an important piece of the puzzle.

doctor. Frank Senekrup, a gastroenterologist and oncologist at the Mayo Clinic in the US who specializes in early-onset colon cancer, says the incidence of the disease has increased dramatically among people born in the 60s or later.

He adds that the increase in young people arriving at his clinic for treatment is “extremely worrying”.

He adds that the diet and lifestyle children are exposed to at an early age may be a factor in this increase, with a focus on obesity, which has become a problem in the past 30 years. However, there is no single factor that can explain this disturbing trend, he points out.

The microbiome plays a role

In investigating the link between cancer and diet, the researchers focus on the possibility that changes in the microbiome, the totality of microorganisms (bacteria, viruses, and fungi) that live mainly in people’s guts, increase susceptibility to cancer.

The microbiome is believed to play a major role in overall health, including digestion and regulation of the immune system, as well as protection against disease-causing bacteria, while aiding in the production of vital vitamins.

Eating foods high in saturated fat and sugar is thought to alter the composition of the microbiome in ways that can harm human health. Although these changes affect people of all ages, researchers believe it is significant that cases of early-onset cancer began to increase from around 1990 onwards.

People born in the 1960s are the first generation to be exposed from childhood to the modern diets, lifestyle and environmental changes that began to become the norm in the rich world from the 1950s onwards.

Many are guilty of collaboration

The fact that the increase in cancer incidence in young men mainly affects the gastrointestinal tract, but also the esophagus, stomach, pancreas, gallbladder and liver strengthens the argument that it is related to diet.

Professor Sohi Ogino, an epidemiologist at the University of California, explains that some other cancers that also increase in young people, such as breast, kidney and endometrial cancer, in addition to multiple myeloma can be affected by both obesity and the state of the microbiome. Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health. In addition, the use of antibiotics and medications in general can affect a person’s microbiome, which is sometimes referred to as the “bacterial fingerprint”.

The aforementioned also indicates that during the second half of the twentieth century, the drugs available to treat various diseases increased exponentially. The latest example is the new anti-obesity drugs. “The upshot is that it is still not known what they do over time,” Ogino adds, stressing that the connection to the microbiome remains serendipitous.

Other lifestyle changes that can combine to increase the incidence of cancer at younger ages include sedentary lifestyles from the 50s onwards, changes in sleep patterns and frequent exposure to bright light at night, which can affect circadian rhythm and metabolism. “All of these changes occurred almost at the same time, so it is difficult to identify the culprit. Perhaps the culprits are many and cooperating with each other,” he concluded.