He said that between 1990 and 2019, the incidence of cancer worldwide increased by 80 percent in this age group, according to a large study published in 2023 by the journal “BMG Oncology,” which focused on the 30 most common types of cancer.
This phenomenon, which especially affects developed countries, leads to an increase in deaths from cancer among people under the age of 50. In the last thirty years, their number has increased by about 28 percent, while the incidence rate has increased by 80 percent.
A remarkable prevalence of cancers of the digestive system (colon, esophagus, liver, etc.) has been recorded, especially among young people, which, according to the American Cancer Society, is the main cause of cancer death in men under fifty, and the second leading cause of death among women of the same age, after breast cancer.
Researchers tend to suggest two main factors: either recent generations were more vulnerable than their predecessors to known risk factors, or new risks have emerged.
In addition, one of the most prominent pieces of evidence for the first hypothesis is that people currently in their forties began smoking, drinking alcohol, or becoming obese at a younger age than the generations before them had these experiences.
For her part, epidemiologist Helen Coleman from Queen’s University in Belfast was interested in studying cancer among young people in Northern Ireland, and noted the existence of an “obesity epidemic” that did not exist before the 1980s.
As for the other hypothesis, which holds that cancers in the forties are caused by the emergence of new carcinogenic substances, its proponents point, for example, to chemicals, microplastics, and new medicines, but everything related to them remains within the framework of speculation.
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2024-03-30 08:22:13