To think there’s a worrying increase in cancer in young people?

[Dandelionclocks]

Okay so I guess it’s because I’ve seen a lot of younger people on TikTok with cancer diagnosis. But I’ve also seen it in the news a lot more recently.
Colon cancer seems more prevalent in young people which at one point was a disease of the over 60s.
I was following a woman the same age as me on TikTok (33) and she tragically recently lost her battle with colon cancer. And then I’ve seen more and more and it’s worrying me.

Has anyone else thought the same or am I overreacting?

Cancer rates probably haven't changed that much, but detecting it has improved so much that cancers are being diagnosed much earlier than before.

It wouldn’t be surprising if colon cancer in particular is more prevalent since we eat a lot more red and processed meat nowadays compared to the past. It is concerning how much rates of cancers in young people have gone up by in recent decades though. Although I imagine outcomes are better now.

You need to separate hearing about it more from it happening more. Once you’re on the look out for it, you’ll spot those stories where you wouldn’t have done before.

The people I know who died of cancer in their twenties and thirties survived childhood illnesses that would have killed them a generation earlier.

Yes this. In the past it would have been misdiagnosed or not spotted at all.

@PurpleDaisies I agree with you that you hear about it more now with social media, but the incidence has also genuinely increased www.cancerresearchuk.org/health-professional/cancer-statistics/young-people-cancers/incidence

Is this not driven by TikTok’s algorithm based “suggestions” for you?

I’d suggest you base your concerns on fact, not TikTok.

3/4 of cancer cases are in the over 60s, this graph shows that it is still unusual in younger demographics

You’re not wrong. Since the early 1990s, incidence rates for all cancers combined have increased for all the broad age groups in the UK. The increase is largest in people aged 25-49 where rates have increased by more than a fifth (22%) (2016-2018). Rates in 0-24s have increased by 19%, in 25-49s have increased by 22%, in 50-74s have increased by 13% and in 75+s have increased by 9%. [Cancer Research Org UK]

I do think highly processed foods and artificial preservatives are one potential cause of this increase.

YABU to think 'seeming to hear about it more' correlates to it actually being more prevalent. YWNBU to think it was more prevalent if you were looking at actual statistics which said so.

But the good news is that mortality rates from cancer have decreased

• Since the early 1970s, mortality rates for all cancers combined have decreased by a sixth (17%) in the UK. Rates in females have decreased by more than a tenth (12%), and rates in males have decreased by around a quarter (26%).


• Over the last decade, mortality rates for all cancers combined have decreased by around a tenth (9%) in the UK. Rates in females have decreased by around a tenth (9%), and rates in males have decreased by more than a tenth (12%).


• An estimated 832,000 cancer deaths had been avoided in the UK by 2016 because mortality rates dropped from their peak levels in the 1980s.


• Mortality rates for all cancers combined are projected to fall by 15% in the UK between 2014 and 2035, to 280 deaths per 100,000 people by 2035.


• Cancer causes more than one in four of all deaths in the UK (2019).


• UK mortality is ranked lower than two-thirds of Europe.

Thank you for all the interesting replies.

Cases have risen but we are MUCH better at picking it up now (partly thanks to awareness and social media)… so it’s difficult to say how much of it is a genuine rise in cases

I’ve noticed the same and it’s worrying me too.

The numbers under 50 even for bowel cancer are very small
www.cancerresearchuk.org/sites/default/files/cancer-stats/cases_crude_mf_bowel_i18/cases_crude_mf_bowel_i18.xlsx

I think you’re right- I noticed this too.

Do we know why cases of colon cancer are increasing in under 50s?

"Do we know why cases of colon cancer are increasing in under 50s?"

A quick Google says lifestyle factors, Sedentary lifestyle, overweight and obesity, smoking, heavy alcohol use, low-fiber, high-fat diets or diets high in processed meats, and other environmental factors have all been associated with the disease.
They'll be doing cross cultural studies to challenge that, so lifestyle does seems to be the reason. There's a level of not being able to stop some of them, if you are poor you eat cheap white carbs and other cheap food.

Yes I've noticed. I had an "old man's" cancer (kidney cancer) when I was a healthy woman in my 30s. I had none of the risk factors. The consultant told me they're seeing more and more young people with this cancer. I can't help thinking it's all the chemicals we're exposed to these days, pesticides in food, chemicals and drugs fed to animals, chemicals used in plastics, clothes production, in our drinking water - literally in EVERYTHING. When my grandparents were young these chemicals just didn't exist. They ate organic, locally grown food and cancer was nowhere near as prevalent as it is now.

Yes indeed. I don't think lifestyle accounts for all these cases. Obviously being unhealthy and overweight will increase your risk but I (and many others) was a healthy weight, vegetarian, loved exercise, ate healthily etc.

In the last 18mos I personally know 3 kids to be diagnosed with cancer. Might be coincidence but I’m 30 and never knew a single kid at school or growing up personally who had it. 1 has leukemia, and 2 have serious but very treatable brain tumours which they are expected to recover well from.