The research concludes that the incidence of 17 types of cancer is higher among younger generations, who even have cases of nine cancers that had already registered a decline in older age groups.
“These findings add to growing evidence of increased cancer risk in younger generations, highlighting the need to identify and address underlying risk factors,” said the study published in August 2024.
Obesity and cancer
Of the 17 cancers that have increased among the millennials and generation X, 10 are related to obesity: colorectal cancer, kidney and renal pelvis, biliary tract, uterine corpus, pancreas, gastric cancer, estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer, ovary, myeloma, liver and intrahepatic bile duct.
“This suggests a possible role for obesity in emerging cancer trends in recent generations,” the report said.
She adds that other factors such as unhealthy diets or a sedentary lifestyle in adolescence and early adulthood have also been associated with an increased risk of some cancers, particularly colorectal and breast cancer.
The study shows that the higher incidence of cancer in young people suggests that new generations are more exposed during early childhood or early adulthood to carcinogens, that is, to substances or agents capable of causing cancer, which is why it is urgent to expand the study of cancer risk factors.
