Why are so many young people diagnosed with cancer? Cancer cases have increased by 30% in people under 50 in the last 20 years. Globally, Australia had the highest number of early-onset cancer diagnoses in the world, with a rate of 135 per 100,000 people. Neighboring New Zealand has the second-highest rate, with 119 cases in people under 50 per 100,000 people. Now, US researchers are able to provide a potential explanation.
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I study
A new study by experts at Washington University in St Louis has found that generations with higher cancer rates have cells and tissues in their bodies that are old beyond their years. In other words, people born after 1965 – aged 59 or younger – may be biologically older than their chronological age. Cells are the core of every bodily function. And as they age, their ability to repair and multiply is compromised, leading to a series of ripple effects.
Those with above-average accelerated aging had a 17 percent greater risk of developing any solid tumor, including cancer of the lung, gastrointestinal tract and uterus.
The screening
Experts said this could mean that a simple blood test and algorithm could be used to understand who is at greatest risk of cancer due to an accelerated rate of aging, and then screening could be recommended on an individual basis. Faster aging may be due to more stressful lifestyles, poor mental health, obesity, a sedentary lifestyle and junk food consumption. For the study, researchers tracked data from nearly 150,000 people in the UK Biomedical Data Biobank. They looked at nine blood markers from blood tests to determine each person’s biological age, which is how old a person’s cells and tissues are. The markers included albumin – a protein produced by the liver and important for preventing fluid from leaking out of blood vessels – which decreases with age, and the average size of red blood cells, which increase with age.
When blood cells are larger, they are less able to divide and multiply. These were fed into an algorithm called PhenoAge, which generated a biological age for each person. The researchers then compared this data to the participants’ actual age and looked at cancer registries to see how many had been diagnosed with early cancers, defined as cancer before age 55. Nearly 3,200 early cancers have been diagnosed.
Those born after 1965
People born in 1965 or later were 17 percent more likely to show accelerated aging than people born between 1950 and 1954. Ruiyi Tian, a graduate student at Washington University and lead author of the study, said : «Unlike chronological age, biological age can be influenced by factors such as diet, physical activity, mental health and environmental stressors. Accumulating evidence suggests that younger generations may be aging more rapidly than expected, likely due to prior exposure to various risk factors and environmental insults. Dr. Anna Blaes, who studies the effect of biological aging in cancer survivors at the University of Minnesota, told CNN that the findings could help scientists understand who is at greatest risk of getting cancer when they are young . “We are seeing more and more cancers, particularly gastrointestinal cancers and breast cancers, in younger individuals. And if we had a way to identify who is at greatest risk, then we could recommend lifestyle changes including nutrition, exercise and sleep.
The factors: smoking and diet
People who had the highest scores had double the risk of early-onset lung cancer, compared to people with the lowest levels of faster aging. They also had a 60% greater risk of stomach cancer and an 80% greater risk of uterine cancer. The lungs may be at greater risk of aging than other tissues because they have a limited ability to regenerate, she said. Stomach and intestinal cancers, meanwhile, have been linked to inflammation, which worsens with aging. Lifestyle factors such as smoking or vaping are known to increase cell damage – and therefore biological age – due to the impact on blood vessels and blood pressure.
Korean researchers studied more than 2.9 million people and found that those who quit smoking had a 17 percent lower risk of getting all types of cancer than those who didn’t quit smoking. Smoking is known to contribute to the development of numerous cancers, including those of the lung, stomach, colorectal, liver, pancreas and kidney. Lack of sleep can also increase biological age, as can overweight and obesity. All of these factors have also been cited as contributing to the increase in cancer cases among individuals under 50 years of age. Colon cancer cases have notably increased, with a 50% increase in diagnoses among adults under 50 in the United States since 1999. Colon cancer deaths among young people are also expected to double by 2030 , experts warned. In a study published this month, researchers found that patients with an aggressive form of colon cancer have unusually high levels of three bacteria in their gut.
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