Young People's Cancer Rates Are Jumping Over Boomers'

Millennials and Gen Xers have a higher risk for 17 cancers over their older counterparts
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 1, 2024 11:13 AM CDT
Young People Have Higher Risk for 17 Cancers Than Boomers
Stock photo.   (Getty Images/monkeybusinessimages)

New research shows that Gen Xers and millennials face a higher risk of certain types of cancer than their older counterparts, the baby boomers. The study published Thursday in the Lancet journal by scientists from the American Cancer Society gathered incidence data from nearly 24 million patients between the ages of 25 and 84 who'd received a diagnosis for one of 34 various cancers, as well as mortality data from more than 7 million patients who'd died of 25 different forms of cancer, all during a 20-year stretch between 2000 and the end of 2019.

What the researchers found is that the incidence rates for half of the cancers—so 17 in total—"are increasing in progressively younger generations," per the Washington Post. USA Today notes that this younger cohort is also more likely to die from five of these cancers than the boomers: liver, uterine, gallbladder, testicular, and colorectal. The biggest risk is seen by millennials regarding kidney, pancreatic, and small-intestine cancers, where their rates exceed those of boomers by two to three times.

Millennial women, meanwhile, are at a higher risk of liver and bile duct cancers, as compared to boomers. "It is a concern," Dr. Ahmedin Jemal, a study co-author, tells the Post, adding that this trend, if it holds, could "halt or even reverse the progress that we have made in reducing cancer mortality over the past several decades." Scientists aren't completely sure what's causing the uptick in cancer rates among the younger generations, though they speculate on several possible factors, including a spike in obesity rates, unhealthier diets than in the past, a drop in exercising, and environmental factors like pollution and cancer-causing chemicals.

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A lack of adequate screening for younger patients, as well as misdiagnoses, contribute to the issue. "If people have symptoms, do not dismiss them," Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center gastrointestinal oncologist Dr. Andrea Cercek, who isn't tied to the study, tells USA Today. She adds that patients should get a "full workup," and possibly a screening if the signs are there. (More discoveries stories.)

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