- cross-posted to:
- world@quokk.au
- cross-posted to:
- world@quokk.au
Over the past 10 years, rates of colorectal cancer among 25 to 49 year olds have increased in 24 different countries, including the UK, US, France, Australia, Canada, Norway and Argentina.
The investigation’s early findings, presented by an international team at the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) congress in Geneva in September 2024, were as eye-catching as they are concerning.
The researchers, from the American Cancer Society (ACS) and the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) International Agency for Research on Cancer, surveyed data from 50 countries to understand the trend. In 14 of these countries, the rising trend was only seen in younger adults, with older adult rates remaining stable.
Based on epidemiological investigations, it seems that this trend first began in the 1990s. One study found that the global incidence of early-onset cancer had increased by 79% between 1990 and 2019, with the number of cancer-related deaths in younger people rising by 29%. Another report in The Lancet Public Health described how cancer incidence rates in the US have steadily risen between the generations across 17 different cancers, particularly in Generation Xers and Millennials.
It’s Covid
Maybe sweeteners
I bet it ends up being caused by something far more innocuous than any of the first guesses that come to mind.
👉👌/🤌👌
TL;DR, the article says obesity rates and sugar account for a lot but not all of the increase so there is probably something else as well. Some suggestions from the article: artificial light, sleep-patterns, changes in biological clock as a result. Microplastics, especially for colorectal cancer. Ultra processed foods. Increased usage of antibiotics.
Obesity and sugar and presented as known cancer causes while the others are proposed or suggested by experts in the article but no thing to back it up yet, further research needed.
thankfully someone actually read the article instead of making low effort jokes.
also keep in mind increased “incidents” can also just come from better detection and reporting. One of the other articles cited in OP says:
Research published in BMJ Oncology found there had been 3.26 million cases in 2019 - 79% more than in 1990. But experts cautioned against reading too much into the findings. The research did not take into account a 40% rise in the total population, while factors such as better reporting may also have played a role. The team, of experts from around the world, including the US, China and the UK, agreed no firm conclusions could be drawn.
Oh wow, this is really important context. That 79% figure is almost worthless
Funny how so many responses have skimmed over the implication of antibiotic use.
Now ask yourselves, these antibiotics… If you’d have asked your doctor at the time “are these drugs safe and effective?”, what do you think the answer would have been?
Now ask your doctor if the latest vaccine is safe and effective and tell me how confident you feel about their response.
Antibiotics and other prescription medications are more often prescribed to older folks, so the increase should be seen in those populations, not primarily more in younger populations. It is unlikely that antibiotics or other similar medical interventions are responsible for the phenomenon seen in the op article.
Also, as a prescriber, I do warn my patients of the dangers of taking antibiotics willy nilly. 🤷🏻♀️
Plastic Sugar Teflon Roundup Lead Pesticides Fertilizers
Just a few of the hazardous substances we regularly come into contact with on a semi-daily basis. The cause of the problem is capitalism.
It’s not just capitalism. I’m from east Germany and you wouldn’t believe how much crap was buried, fumed into the air or pumped into the water in the name of peace and socialism.
Don’t forget, Chernobyl happened because of a cost saving measure.
BTW, you forgot alcohol, tobacco, vapes, stress and enforced sedentary lifestyle in your cancer list.
We’re on Lemmy, every evil in the world is the result of capitalism.
Younger generations drink less and use less tobacco than basically any other generation, so that’s probably not it.
I don’t know what you mean by “enforced sedentary lifestyle,” but young people tend to do activities that don’t involve exercise in their free time: computer use, phone use, video games, etc.
I think the fact that obesity is up something like 20% since the 90s is probably related. Young people exercise less and eat like shit, which seems pretty related to rectal/colon cancers.
I don’t know what you mean by “enforced sedentary lifestyle,”
Skill issue, I’d argue. May I introduce you to the concept of “working in an office”?
Yes, people only started working in offices 20 years ago. 🙄
in the name of peace and socialism.
That was the false justification because the actual reason was capitalism.
Don’t forget, Chernobyl happened because of a cost saving measure.
Cutting costs to make a profit is capitalism - especially when the “externality” is a catastrophe for other people.
Cutting costs to make a profit is capitalism
And socialism and communism are also dealing with limited resources and thus cutting cost is also something that will come up. It’s not like communism unlocks unlimited resources.
Ah yes, the famous capitalist powerhouse Soviet Union.
This
I’m still convinced that the aluminum in deodorants are not safe either…
Same. When that news first hit I switched to non-aluminum brands just to be safe.
Aluminum is in antiperspirants, not deodorants (usually).
Lead and Teflon have gone down since the 90s. I’d say it’s mostly plastic. Up and into most all of the 80’s everyone drank tap water and sodas/other drinks were all canned or glass bottles.
Then around 1990 everyone started putting their drink in plastic. Then 15 years later for some dumbass reason, people started to buy and drink all their water out of plastic as well.
Problem with PFAS and many other stuff is that it is accumulating in the biosphere. So while the new emissions go down, you still end up being exposed to more and more of them over time. They still get into the water and then into the plants and animals that you eat later.
The largest contributor to the micro-plastics in your body is tire dust, though, it’s not new. More of it since the 90s, yeah, maybe there’s a threshold?
Doesn’t really seem like there’s more plastic dust? But since this study looked at colon cancer, maybe inhalation plastic has less of a role?
Old people come into contact with all that stuff too, not just young people.
According to the American Cancer Society’s 2024 stats cancer deaths are declining in some areas (ie: lung cancer) but increasing in many others.
In 2024, 2,001,140 new cancer cases and 611,720 cancer deaths are projected to occur in the United States.
- Cancer mortality continued to decline through 2021, averting over 4 million deaths since 1991 because of reductions in smoking, earlier detection for some cancers, and improved treatment options in both the adjuvant and metastatic settings.
However, these gains are threatened by increasing incidence for 6 of the top 10 cancers.
- Incidence rates increased during 2015–2019 by 0.6%–1% annually for breast, pancreas, and uterine corpus cancers and by 2%–3% annually for prostate, liver (female), kidney, and human papillomavirus-associated oral cancers and for melanoma.
Incidence rates also increased by 1%–2% annually for cervical (ages 30–44 years) and colorectal cancers (ages <55 years) in young adults. Colorectal cancer was the fourth-leading cause of cancer death in both men and women younger than 50 years in the late-1990s but is now first in men and second in women.
- Progress is also hampered by wide persistent cancer disparities; compared to White people, mortality rates are two-fold higher for prostate, stomach and uterine corpus cancers in Black people and for liver, stomach, and kidney cancers in Native American people. Source
you’re conflating mortality metrics with incidence metrics. increasing incidents are very likely biased by improved detection and reporting.
anyway the point is not that cancer is going away or anything, but that you can’t easily say “pollution is giving us cancer” as the top comment is.
Both mortality and incidence rates are included in what I quoted.
I know, that was my point.
So your point was that I conflated metrics but that had nothing to do with the OPs original post?
…okay fine, I have a lump around my ass ring and maybe this convinced me to finally get it checked
These kind of cancers are the sad kind where they’re readily treatable if you catch them early. But if you put it off and wait too long, you can literally die anally and painfully from your procrastination.
All you’ll likely feel is pain and regret for the remainder of your life. Not just for putting this off, but for all the other things you put off for “later” as the end rapidly approaches. Doesn’t sound great.
There’s so many factors. Pesticides, nitrates are prevalent in most meat products, lack of dietary fibre can increase risks of colon cancer and high cholesterol.
Not to mention micro plastics (though they’ve been around for longer than we’ve known I bet) and forever chemicals like PFAs (though not sure if they’re cancerous??).
Don’t forget light pollution.