A variety of cancers are on the rise among young adults, according to a new study.
However, the rise in the majority of these cancers is related to one cause: obesity.
Worldwide obesity rates recently hit 1 billion, making it one of the most significant public health problems to date. The Dallas Express has reported extensively on the epidemic of obesity and the many health problems that it causes. Carrying excess fat can heighten a person’s risk for an array of diseases and conditions, such as type 2 diabetes, dementia, heart disease, and more. Now add over 10 different types of cancer to that list, including colon and rectal, kidney and renal pelvis, gallbladder and other biliary, pancreas, and cardia gastric.
CNN reports on the new study’s findings, and some of the things researchers speculate are behind the rise in numbers. Here’s the start of the story:
As cancer cases rise among young adults in the United States, a new study has identified 17 cancer types that appear to be more common in Generation X and millennials than older age groups.
Among adults born between 1920 and 1990, there is a significant difference between each generation in the incidence of cancer rates and cancer types, including breast, colon and rectal, pancreatic and uterine cancers, according to the study published Wednesday in the journal The Lancet Public Health.
“Uterine cancer is one that really jumps out where we see tremendous increases. It has about a 169% higher incidence rate if you’re born in the 1990s as opposed to if you’re born in the 1950s – and this is for people at the same age. Someone born in the 1950s, when they were in their 30s or 40s, saw a different incidence rate compared with someone born in the 1990s in their 30s or 40s,” said Dr. William Dahut, chief scientific officer for the American Cancer Society, whose colleagues authored the new study.
“What’s a little different about this paper is that it includes a wider variety of cancers,” he said. “It actually looked at 34 different cancers in which 17, we saw an increase in incidence, and five an increase in mortality in young adults under the age of 50.”