A worrying new study by the American Cancer Society has revealed that Generation X and millennials are at more risk of developing many types of cancer than their predecessors. This is in line with a growing body of evidence which shows that some cancers, like those of the bowel, breast and pancreas, are becoming more common in young people . This new study looked at data from almost 24 million cancer patients collected from US cancer registries over a 20-year period, beginning in 2000.
The research team sorted the data according to cancer type, sex and birth cohort – in other words, the five-year period during which they’d been born. They also carried out a statistical adjustment to take into account the fact that, for everyone, the older you get the more likely you are to develop cancer. By analysing rates of the 34 most commonly occurring cancers (those which had at least 2,00,000 cases over the two decades) the study provides the most definitive evidence yet for a changing picture of how many people are getting cancer – and when and why they’re getting it.
Shockingly, 17 different cancers are becoming increasingly common in the younger cohorts analysed. For example, people born in 1990 were between two and three times more likely to develop cancers of the small intestine, thyroid, kidney and pancreas than those born in 1955. They also found that people born more recently are getting cancer at a younger age.
Across all ages and all cancers, the most dramatic increas.