Friday, January 17, 2025 - Cancer rates for young women are sharply rising, with women under 50 more likely to develop cancer than their male counterparts.
The rate of cancer for young women “has increased from 51% higher than
men in 2002 to 82% higher in 2021,” according to a report issued by
the American Cancer Society.
The report says an increase in breast cancer, which has gone up 1% each
year from 2012 to 2021, is part of what is driving these numbers. In women
younger than 50, breast cancer has increased 1.4 by % per year.
The study cites risk factors like excess body weight, later childbirth,
and fewer childbirths as possible contributing factors.
Deaths from uterine cancer are also on the rise, as the study
says it’s “one of the few cancers with increasing mortality; from 2013 to 2022
the death rate rose by 1.5% per year.”
Colorectal cancer also follows this trend, where rates among people
younger than 50 have increased by 2.4% per year — and mortality rates have
increased by 1% per year.
Pancreatic cancer has also seen a steady 1% year-over-year increase
in diagnoses since the mid-1990s — and mortality is also increasing, albeit at
a smaller rate.
“These unfavourable trends are tipped toward women,” Rebecca L. Seigel,
an epidemiologist with the American Cancer Society and the report’s first
author, told the New York Times.
“Of all the cancers that are increasing, some are increasing in men, but
it’s lopsided — more of this increase is happening in women.”
Neil Iyengar, an oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center,
told the outlet that the rise in “a variety of cancers in younger people,
particularly in young women, suggests there is something broader going on than
variations in individual genetics or population genetics.”
Environmental causes, as well as lifestyle factors — such as an
unhealthy diet, poor sleep patterns, smoking or vaping, and alcohol use — may
be driving the increase.
“I don’t think people realize how much control they have over their
cancer risk,” Rebecca L. Seigel, an epidemiologist with the American Cancer
Society and the report’s first author, told the outlet. “There’s so much we can
all do. Don’t smoke is the most important.”
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