Obesity blamed for ‘disturbing’ rise in cancer cases among young

Cancer cases are rising more quickly in the young than the old because of an obesity epidemic, experts have warned.

The proportion of cases among adults aged 25 to 50 has surged by a quarter in two decades, according to figures, faster than any other age group.

Experts fear the “disturbing” growth in early-onset cancer has been driven by the nation’s unhealthy relationship with food, with obesity rates doubling over the same period.

The number of new cancer cases among Britons aged 25 to 50 has risen to 35,000 each year and the incidence rate, which takes account of population growth, is up by 24 per cent, rising from 132.9 per 100,000 people to 164.6 in 2019, according to the latest data.

The second sharpest rise in cancer rates were seen among the under-25s, where the rate of cancer increased by 16 per cent, from 16.6 cases per 100,000 in 1995 to 19.2 cases.

Among all ages combined the cancer rate grew by 13 per cent, from 539 per 100,000 people to 611.5, which is almost half the rate of the 25-50s.

The slowest rise was among the over-75s, which grew by 10 per cent, from 2,259.7 cases per 100,000 people to 2,482.7 cases, while in those aged 50 to 74, it was up 14 per cent from 955.1 to 1,092.

The analysis by Cancer Research UK (CRUK) comes amid concern that a global epidemic of the disease among the young may be emerging.

Discussing the findings at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) conference, scientists said unhealthy diets, a lack of exercise and obesity were likely to be factors behind the surge.

‘Real puzzle’

“Over recent decades, there has been a clear increase in cancer incidence rates in young adults in the UK,” said Prof Charles Swanton, CRUK’s chief clinician.

“We are seeing them through our clinics and it is disturbing and we don’t have a good answer as to why this is happening. It really is a scientific conundrum that urgently needs to be solved. It’s a real puzzle, we’ve got to get to the bottom of it,” he said.

“There are many preventable causes of cancer we know about including smoking, obesity, red meat, but they don’t in themselves explain the increase we’re seeing in the under-50s,” he added. “Bowel cancer is the one that’s the main concern. It speaks to the possibility of there being additional preventable factors that we’re not yet aware of or fully understand…