[STUDY] Cancer Now Targeting Younger People—Even 14-Year-Olds No Longer Safe

A new study revealed that cancer among younger people is increasing. Involved experts also said that certain types of cancer are deadlier than others.

Although the findings are alarming, a professor shared something that can ease people's worries, especially parents.

Cancer Now Targeting Younger People

(Photo: INTI OCON/AFP via Getty Images) A patient with cancer holds a balloon prior to the "March of the Balloons", an activity that is carried out for the International Day of the Fight Against Childhood Cancer, in Managua, on February 17, 2018.

According to Gizmodo's latest report, the new study, which was conducted by numerous scientists from Sweden, the U.K., and China, revealed that cancer is becoming more common in patients under 50 years old.

They analyzed the data from the Global Burden Disease (GBD), specifically focusing on early-onset cancer, which is the cancer diagnosed between the ages of 14 to 50 years old.

Involved researchers compared GBD data from 2019 to the GBD data acquired back in 1990. Their findings showed that early-onset cancer cases between these years increased by 79.1%. Meanwhile, deaths caused by the disease spiked by 27.7%.

They also discovered that certain cancers are deadlier and lead to more disabilities in 2019. These are bronchus and lung, stomach and colorectal, as well as breast cancers.

Scientists also revealed that the fastest-spreading cancers during that year were prostate and nasopharyngeal cancers.

Previous studies already suggested that cancer is becoming more common among patients under 50 years old. But, the scientists of the latest study claim that their work is the first attempt to quantify existing cancer trends on a global scale.

Survival Rates of Young Cancer Patients are Increasing

(Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) Eighteen-year-old cancer patient Patrick McGill lies in his hospital bed while receiving IV chemotherapy treatment for a rare form of cancer at the UCSF Comprehensive Cancer Center Children's Hospital on August 18, 2005, in San Francisco, California.

Since the new study suggests that even 14-year-olds can get cancer, including the mentioned deadly types, the findings are something parents should worry about.

However, Montserrat Garcia-Closas, an epidemiology professor at the Institute of Cancer Research in London, said something that can ease the worries of parents.

"Previous reports have shown that globally, since the 1990s, there has been an increase in cancer incidence rates in the under 50s and a decrease in mortality rates," explained Montserrat via CNN Health.

She added that this means that more and more younger cancer patients are surviving the disease. The health expert further stated that the increase in survival rates among early-onset cancer patients is happening because of improvements in treatments and early detection.

If you want to learn more about the improvement in the survival rates of younger cancer patients, you can click this link.