In the field of global health, we often talk about each generation living longer and healthier lives than their parents. We’ve seen this in the gains in life expectancy, the sharp decrease in child mortality and in the near elimination of many vaccine-preventable diseases. But since the turn of the century this progress has stalled, and in some cases several health metrics have gone backwards.
Take cancer, which was long thought to be a disease linked to old age. While most cancers do indeed still occur in elderly people, a new report highlights that a number of cancers are increasing in people who are under 50, often referred to as “early onset cancer”. The report, undertaken by the World Cancer Research Fund, looked at data from 12 different cancer types in England, the US and the Netherlands over the past 20 years.
What they found isn’t pretty. While there were slight variations among the three countries, larger patterns are clear. Among women who are under 50 in England, breast, bowel, uterine, kidney, liver, pancreatic and stomach cancers have increased.
For men under 50 in England, there were increases in bowel, kidney, liver, pancreatic and prostate cancers. This is the opposite of what we would hope to achieve in public health – and no, it isn’t only because we have better diagnostic tools, or are doing more testing. While this explains some of the increase, it doesn’t account for it all.
The data indicates that younger generations are experiencing a higher incidence of some cancers than previous generations at the same age. Put more simply: you have a higher chance of cancer at a younger age than your parents. Scientists are now working to unpick what has changed between generations that might be driving this uptick, especially trying to find things people may have been exposed to during childhood or adolescence in the 1990s that they wouldn’t have been in the 1950s.
Here are some potential explanations: what we eat has changed significantly over the past 50 years, with the rise in ultra-processed and fast foods as well as sugary drinks. We also are more sedentary as a population. These changes are linked to rising levels of excess weight and obesity.
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