Oncologists had observed this for some time: more and more young patients were asking for a consultation until the bitter discovery of the diagnosis. But now the data coming from a study published in the journal BMJ Oncology confirm it: in the last 30 years the number of cancer cases among people under the age of 50 has increased by almost 80% worldwide. According to researchers from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and Zhejiang University School of Medicine in Hangzhou, China who led the study, the number of cancer diagnoses has risen from just over 1.8 million in 1990, to over 3 2 million in 2019. «An alarming figure, but we expected it – admits Giampaolo Tortora, director of the Comprehensive Cancer Center of the Gemelli Polyclinic and full professor of oncology at the Catholic University – In recent years we have increasingly of patients under the age of 50.
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AND GIVE
Using data from the Global Burden of Disease 2019 for 29 cancers in 204 countries and regions, the study authors looked at incidence, deaths, health outcomes and risk factors in people aged 14 to 49. «In the past, the data was limited to regional areas, everyone relativized the evidence and also the perception of the surgeries based on the country in which they lived – explains the oncologist – This study looked more broadly and globally and concluded something that was in everyone’s perception. It is no coincidence that for some time now, even here at Gemelli, working groups for cancer for young adults have been forming more and more, because even in this area we are experiencing an increase in early incidence cancers, the most common ones , to the colon, to the breast, to the prostate». The reasons for this increase remain to be understood. «Genetics can play a role – Tortora remarks – But we know that it is less than 10% of cases. In the first instance, the defendants are smoking, alcohol, eating habits and some pathologies that are attributable to obesity and diabetes. Another factor, not easily quantifiable, is linked to the environment and to food, i.e. to the quality of the food: we are observing some tumors linked to careless nutrition, with too much red meat, too little fruit and vegetables, but also those of the digestive. Tumors of the trachea, then, not only those of the lung, are not caused only by smoking, but certainly by environmental pollution”. Meanwhile, recommendations and prevention seem to have no impact. «The increase in the smoking habit among young girls is impressive – Tortora denounces – And this will inevitably translate into a significant increase in lung cancer among women. It’s a trend we’re already observing, and it’s going to get much worse. Seeing our clinics frequented by increasingly younger patients makes us think. There has been a significant gap in the age group in just a few years.’
THE CURE
And if it is true that treatments are increasingly innovative, for oncologists it is an enigma that the incidence of tumors that have less chance of a cure is now growing. “In the global report, in addition to an increase in incidence, there is also an increase in mortality, and this is a frightening figure”. The challenge therefore becomes more and more difficult: «What we are trying to do, in the tumors of young adults, is to try to understand the biological and genomic characteristics present in the tumors. The suspicion explains Tortora is that they are different from their equivalent in elderly patients ». Which means that the tumor of an organ, in a much younger than average patient, almost certainly has a basis of mutations compared to the older patient. “Finding these mutations could help us understand if there is a cause in the environment and thus allow us to understand effective prevention pathways”.
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