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Cancer Is Striking More Young People, and Doctors Are Alarmed and Baffled (www.wsj.com)

submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Researchers are trying to figure out what is making more young adults sick, and how to identify those at high risk

Meilin Keen was studying for the bar exam and preparing to move to New York City last June when she started throwing up blood.

Keen, 27 years old, learned days later that she has gastric cancer. She postponed the bar exam. Brain fog from chemotherapy made it hard to do her legal work.

Surgeons removed her stomach in December. Keen is coming to terms with all that means for her diet, her health, even her dating life. “That’s a fun icebreaker: I don’t have a stomach anymore,” she said.

Cancer is hitting more young people in the U.S. and around the globe, baffling doctors. Diagnosis rates in the U.S. rose in 2019 to 107.8 cases per 100,000 people under 50, up 12.8% from 95.6 in 2000, federal data show. A study in BMJ Oncology last year reported a sharp global rise in cancers in people under 50, with the highest rates in North America, Australia and Western Europe.

Doctors are racing to figure out what is making them sick, and how to identify young people who are at high risk. They suspect that changes in the way we live—less physical activity, more ultra-processed foods, new toxins—have raised the risk for younger generations.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I’m sorry, are only young people exposed to microplastics?

This is something specific to the young.

[–] Grass 13 points 10 months ago

Probably the people born infused with microplastics while older people only had lead gasoline fumes.

[–] Patches 8 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

The article notes Cancer is coming to young people more than it used to. It makes no claims that it isn't also coming for older people.