There Generation X is the most affected by cancer. Among those born between 1965 and 1980 there was the greatest per capita increase in the incidence of the main cancers compared to any previous generation from 1908 to 1964. This is the conclusion reached by a study by the National Cancer Institute in the USA, analyzing data from 3.8 million cancer patients in the ‘Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results’ programme. According to the findings, published in the Jama Network, cancer incidence in the United States could remain high for decades.
Cancers are increasing in younger age groups, but trends in incidence by year of birth are still unclear. The researchers tried to answer this question by estimating the trend in the spread of cancer over the various generations on the basis of the cases ascertained in the database of 13 registers of the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results program. Invasive cancers diagnosed at the age of 35-84 between 1992 and 2018 were ‘cataloged’ based on the affected site and other parameters such as sex and ethnicity. The researchers then used different computational models to compare the incidence of various types of cancer at age 60 in Generation X (1965-1980) and Baby Boomers (1946-1964).
GenX was the most affected. In particular, women are more likely to develop cancers of the thyroid, kidney, rectum, uterus, colon, pancreas, non-Hodgkins lymphoma, and leukemia. Among men, the rate of thyroid, kidney, rectal, colon, prostate and leukemia cancers increases. There is some good news. The incidence of lung cancer has decreased in both men and women. Cervical cancer and, among men, non-Hodgkins lymphoma are also decreasing. But this decrease, the researchers warn, could be offset by increases in cancers in other organs, and cancer incidence could remain high for decades.
