Cancer rates are on the rise for younger generations — and obesity may be a big reason why

Cancer rates in Millennials and Gen X have risen sharply along with obesity rates

Cancer rates are on the rise for younger generations, as a recent study in the journal Lancet Public Health demonstrates. For Generation X and Millennials, the rates for 17 different types of cancers have increased dramatically, with many cases linked to the rise in obesity rates.

The American Cancer Society (ACS) analyzed information from nearly 24 million patients diagnosed with 34 types of cancer (with over 7 million fatal cases) between Jan. 1, 2000 and Dec. 31, 2019. Within that cohort, the ACS discovered that the incidence rates have skyrocketed for 17 of the 34 types of cancers among two specific demographics: Generation X and Millennials. Notably, these include cancers that are linked to obesity including "colorectum, uterine corpus, gallbladder and other biliary, kidney and renal pelvis, and pancreas" cancers.

That said, the authors only hint at obesity as being a culprit of the cancer rate spike, arguing that "the rising cancer incidence for many cancer types in successively younger generations suggests increases in the prevalence of carcinogenic exposures during early life or young adulthood, which have yet to be elucidated." They advocated intervention strategies "that align with the social and cultural context, values, and preferences of the young generations."

Outside experts, however, believe that this data points to the obesity epidemic as a likely culprit. Among other things, free fatty acids — which are more likely to be present at high quantities in the blood of people with obesity — are associated with cancers and other diseases, like type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

“When someone is obese, a lot of things change in the body, including chronic inflammation that leads to years and years worth of damage to cells and tissues in the body, which can lead to cancer,” Timothy Rebbeck, professor of cancer prevention at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, told Yahoo Life.

"Without effective population-level interventions, the maturation of younger generations could lead to an overall increase in cancer burden in the future, halting or reversing decades of progress against cancer," the study authors warn.

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