US Gen X-ers and Millennials have an increased risk of 17 different types of cancers, including breast, pancreatic and gastric cancers, according to a new study. As well as incidence rates, mortality rates have also continued to rise in younger generations.
“These findings add to growing evidence of increased cancer risk in post-Baby Boomer generations, expanding on previous findings of early-onset colorectal cancer and a few obesity-associated cancers to encompass a broader range of cancer types,” said Dr. Hyuna Sung, lead author of the study.
The researchers behind the study, published in The Lancet Public Health, looked at incidence data from over 23 million cases of 34 different kinds of cancer and mortality data from over seven million deaths from 25 types of cancer. Subjects were aged 25-84 years, and the data covered the period 1 January 2000 to 31 December 2019. Data were taken from the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries and the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics.
Subjects were separated into birth cohorts to allow comparison between incidence and mortality rates stretching back into the early twentieth century.
The researchers discovered that incidence rates increased with each successive birth cohort born since approximately 1920 for eight out of the total of 34 cancers. The incidence rate was between two and three times higher in the 1990 birth cohort than in the 1955 birth cohort for pancreatic, kidney, and small intestinal cancers in both men and women, and for liver cancer in women.
Incidence rates increased in younger cohorts, after a decline in older birth cohorts, for nine of the remaining 26 cancers including a specific kind of breast cancer, uterine corpus cancer, colorectal cancer, non-cardia gastric cancer, gallbladder cancer, ovarian cancer, testicular cancer, anal cancer in men, and Kaposi sarcoma in men.
The incidence rate for cancers in the 1990 birth cohort ranged from 12% for ovarian cancer to 169% for uterine corpus cancer higher than the rate in the birth cohort with the lowest rate.
Mortality rates also increased in successively younger birth cohorts alongside incidence rates for liver cancer (women only), uterine corpus, gallbladder, testicular, and colorectal cancers.
The study does not investigate why the incidence and mortality rates have increased so dramatically over the last century, but changes in diet, lifestyle and exposure to harmful chemicals are likely to be responsible.
BOMBSHELL PROOF: Acting Secret Service Director Caught In Massive Perjury
