Report shows increase in cancer cases among people below 50 years

Since 1990, the number of adults under the age of 50 developing cancer has seen a dramatic increase around the world, according to a new report by researchers at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital. The data shows a drastic rise in some types of cancer including breast, colon, esophagus, kidney, liver, and pancreas cancers beginning in the 1990s.

Dramatic rise

An improvement in screening is partly responsible for the high numbers but it does not explain why the increase in early-onset cancers (cancers discovered in adults younger than 50 years old) are not slowing down, according to Science Alert.

The fact that cancer cases have been on the ascendency is not new in the medical field. But these researchers set out to examine the trend in adults below the age of 50. Shuji Ogino, physician-scientist and one of the authors of the report published on Nature.com said:

From our data, we observed something called the birth cohort effect. This effect shows that each successive group of people born at a later time (e.g., decade-later) have a higher risk of developing cancer later in life, likely due to risk factors they were exposed to at a young age.

Possible risk factors

The team reviewed data across 14 cancer types among people born in the 1950s and 1960s. T but study their rate of cancer from the 1990s onwards. They critically analysed any available studies that could explain possible risk factors of these cancers.

They concluded that early life exposures such as diet, weight, lifestyle, environmental exposure, and microbiome be responsible for the increase in early-onset cancer. They however added that more information on individual exposures is needed, according to ABC News.

The food we eat feeds the microorganisms in our gut. Diet directly affects microbiome composition and eventually, these changes can influence disease risk and outcomes

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