BMJ: Increasing Global Trends in Cancer

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The Wall Street Journal published today an article, regarding rates of cancer, which caught my attention, behind a paywall: Cancer Is Striking More Young People, and Doctors Are Alarmed and Baffled

However, it built its story from a 2023 article published in the scholarly and highly regarded medical journal, British Medical Journal, a free link. When it comes to medical science, it is always best to read the original research data and ignore the mainstream media. Since this forum discusses fitness, weight loss and healthy living, this BMJ might be of interest to some readers. Good news: those who are on the road to fitness and healthy living are on the right track.

The gist of the BMJ article is as follows:

Since 1990, the incidence and deaths of early onset cancers have substantially increased globally. Early-onset breast, tracheal, bronchus and lung, stomach and colorectal cancers showed the highest mortality and burden in 2019. Countries with a high-middle and middle Sociodemographic Index and individuals aged 40–49 years were particularly affected. Dietary risk factors (diet high in red meat, low in fruits, high in sodium and low in milk, etc), alcohol consumption and tobacco use are the main risk factors underlying early-onset cancers.

From the conclusion

Encouraging a healthy lifestyle, including a healthy diet, the restriction of tobacco and alcohol consumption and appropriate outdoor activity, could reduce the burden of early-onset cancer. It is worth exploring whether early screening and prevention programmes for early-onset cancer should be expanded to include individuals aged 40–44 and 45–49, but further systematic studies and randomised trials are necessary to make a definitive determination.

Since Prostate Cancer is often mentioned on this forum by members, esp by those using anabolics who worry about their PSA levels, take note of the following:

Our results suggested that the incidences of early-onset nasopharynx cancer and prostate cancer displayed the most rapid upward trends in morbidity from 1990 to 2019. ...Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening, which began in developed countries in the 1990s, contributed to the incidence of early-onset prostate cancer.20 However, it would be incorrect to solely attribute the entire increase in early-onset prostate cancer since 1986 to PSA screening. Besides advancements in screenings and diagnostics, other possible reasons for variations in health outcomes could be differences in age demographics and the presence of genetic and lifestyle risk factors.20

Citation:
Zhao, Jianhui, et al. "The Global Trends in Incidence, Death, Burden and Risk Factors of Early-onset Cancer From 1990 to 2019." BMJ Oncology 2 (2023): e000049.
Free link: https://bmjoncology.bmj.com/content/2/1/e000049