To think cancer is rising exponentially in under 55s?

[Peverellshire]

Anecdotes not data, but:

1. Kidney cancer that’s spread - friend - fit, well, 52, diagnosed after routine check for something else. Spread to other organs, no symptoms
2. Triathlete colleague, 52 years. Stomach/ bowel cancer, spread. Diagnosed after, a sudden, violent, stomach upset. Stage 4.
3. Colleague / stage 4 bowel cancer, aged 47, no real symptoms.

Numerous other acquaintances in 50-55 bracket.

Should we have ‘preventative’ MRIs?
To be expected in 50s as old/older?
Does it reflect your experience?

The sea contains micro plastics now. We are consuming plastics and breathing it in micro form.

Gov publishes death stats if people want to look at figures.

(Spotted this come back up on my active threads so I’ve been catching up )

The checks I was referring to were simple annual health checks so routine bloods checking vitamin, sugar, cholesterol and inflammation levels and probably a simple check on liver and kidney functions, blood pressure, weight, height and a general opportunity for a patient to raise any minor concerns they’ve noted but haven’t deemed serious enough to get a GP appointment for. It creates a good baseline history for every patient rather than a scattered history that’s likely been obtained when an actual issue has prompted the patient to attend the surgery.

personally I don’t think scanning is always the way to go because it does return a higher incidence of findings that are likely completely benign and self resolving. If you’re concerned about your family history in particular there’s nothing preventing you seeking private bloods and scans and building your own documentation to present to any doctor if you’re ever concerned.

it would be worth a chat with your GP too to see if you would be able to partake in any specific cancer screening programmes.

More likely to be down to genes smoking, alcohol and obesity. So many people looking to blame covid vaccines.

Also stress. Lack of sleep gives your body less time overnight for DNA repair to occur.

@BatteryPowerGnat apparently, ‘ sleep’is the new smoking…

I know lots of people with breast cancer. Not one smokes, is overweight, or drinks heavily, or much at all.

I'm 54 and (touch wood!) have only known of one cancer death in my wider circle of aquintances, friends and colleagues for about a decade, and that person was 80. I've never known of anyone die of cancer with the type of sudden onset no warning at all symptoms you describe. I do worry that people seem to be putting a lot of concerning symptoms down to menopause or long covid these days though, and that coupled with poor NHS services could lead to delays in diagnosis.

Fish are farmed, though, especially salmon. Huge pens in the sea, not much space, fed antibiotics to ward off the disease they’re bound to pick up and fed food colouring to make their flesh look more pink.

@WashItTomorrow
Just because you don't know anyone who has breast cancer who smoke, drinks alcohol, is obese etc doesn't mean they are risk factors.
They all have genes though.
Stress and insufficient sleep are also risk factors. Also the environment.
A previous poster talked about someone getting cancer if they 'switch on' too many risk factors.
My husband was diagnosed at 60 with stage 4 prostate cancer. He has never drunk alcohol, smoked, exercises regularly and eats a health diet and isn't overweight.
However he's black which doubles the risk. He has a brother, an uncle and at least 4 cousins diagnosed with prostate cancer (2 have died of it) which increases the risk by 2.5 times. He had genetic testing via the Royal Marsden and they said his risk was 4.5 times higher than the average man (1 in 8).
His risk was worse than 1 in 2. Probably 56% likely to get it.
He was working long hours in a very stressful job and skimping on sleep for many years beforehand.
His 'switches' were probably genes, stress and lack of sleep.

It’s your wording @BatteryPowerGnat you mentioned genes and then flippantly said probably caused by ‘alcohol, obesity or smoking’ They may be risk factors but as you acknowledged in
your second post there are many more factors that come in to play. And do you know what? Sometimes it’s just luck - cancer is our cells proliferating too much, it can happen to anyone. So be careful with your wording.

I mean how many people even smoke these days?

And children haven’t lived long enough to do the bad things like drinking and smoking. Sometimes it’s just cells going awry. It’s nobodies ‘fault’

See also animals. They don’t drink and smoke.

This isn't a thread about cancers caused by random chance or genes though, it's a thread about the worldwide increase in younger onset cancers, which has to be caused by environmental/"lifestyle" factors.

For example a lot of people have mentioned friends in their forties who've contracted breast cancer. They were apparently fit and healthy, according to the posters, but how many children did they have? And when?

Obviously it would be mad to say that women should have children that they don't want at a time they don't want them in order to lower their chance of breast cancer, but global changes in fertility do have an impact on cancer rates.

See also shift working, street lighting, the ubiquity of UPF, some types of pollution (some aspects have improved, some have got worse). Just because it's influenced by lifestyle or environment doesn't mean that the individual is solely to blame.

Yes we’ve been discussing all factors. That’s my point - the environmental factors are contributing more than we think. So to flippantly say ‘oh it’s because they were overweight and smoked’ isn’t helpful. It’s hugely complex.

@WashItTomorrow how many are on HRT? Whilst gen safer that thought I know many that are told to up progesterone if bleed & not on continuous HRT etc, or thought things out of kilter, etc. Poss all fine & so many now on HRT.

I didn't say probably, I said more likely. There is a difference between the two.
Don't be so patronising. Someone was trying suggest the covid vaccines fgs.

We’ve lost several friends to prostate cancer.

If your dh/partner or any other male relatives are 50 or coming up to it, do please get them to have their PSA levels checked. From all I gather it’s not routine - they’ll need to ask.

It’s obviously stupid to suggest vaccines cause cancer.
But suggesting it was down to smoking/obesity/alcohol is also wrong and judgemental

Never heard of anyone having a full body scan in Poland ( unless privately).

There's a reason it's not routine though. Most men with raised PSA don't have cancer. Biopsies aren't risk free. Many prostate cancers are so slow growing that they're not dangerous, but the treatment would be harmful.

It's something that all men in their fifties should consider carefully, especially if they're black or have a family history or are obese, but it's not the right choice for everyone.
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/prostate-cancer/should-i-have-psa-test/

A few but not many. Quite a few are too young. I wasn’t. I do wonder about hormonal contraception, though, as well as HRT. If I had my time again, I’d advise no-one to take either. There are different types of breast cancer and one is linked to HRT use.

One factor to note is that in the past, until fairly recently there was a huge taboo about talking about cancer. Are there more cancer deaths now, or are they just more discussed and better reported?

These are changes since the 1990s, not the 1950s.

The pill is protective against ovarian and womb cancer though.

Fewer of them, though. One in seven women will get breast cancer. Something needs to be done. Screening is also ineffective in many cases.