New Cancer Cases Will Top 2 Million This Year

Cancer on the rise among young, middle-aged

More generally, the burden of cancer is shifting to younger age groups. The American Cancer Society report found that while the overall proportion of cancer diagnoses has decreased for adults 65 and older over the last three decades (from 61 percent to 58 percent), it’s increased for those ages 50 to 64 (from 25 percent to 30 percent). 

“The shift toward more middle-aged patients likely in part reflects steep decreases in incidence of prostate and smoking-related cancers among older men and increased cancer risk in people born since the 1950s associated with changing patterns in known exposures, such as higher obesity, as well as others yet to be elucidated,” the authors of the report write. 

Incidence rates increased by 1 to 2 percent annually for cervical cancer among people 30 to 44 years old and for colorectal cancer for people under 55, according to the report. 

“I think we're all grappling with what is the broadly spoken environmental factor which is changing the cancer incidence and mortality amongst the young,” Dahut said.

Small changes can make a big difference

Health experts say the report’s findings highlight the need for preventive measures, one of which is screening. “The cancers that do have screening tests need a much more active uptake,” says Dahut, who adds that screening participation for some cancers, like lung cancer, is “abysmal in many parts of the country.” Screening tests are available and recommended for cervical, breast, colorectal, prostate and lung cancers.

Beyond screening, Iyengar says “daily, small behaviors add up to have a huge impact on cancer risk.” Research suggests that about 42 percent of cancers are preventable through lifestyle changes. 

Even a few minutes of daily physical activity can have an impact on your risk for certain cancers, Iyengar says. The same goes for diet. Start small — maybe pick one day a week to cut out red meat and focus on fruits and vegetables.

“For many of my own patients, what I find is that these small tweaks in diet and physical activity actually motivate folks to make bigger changes in their lifestyle, because I think it helps to lower the barriers or the mental expectation that it takes a lot of effort to change someone's lifestyle. When in fact, it's really these kind of small changes in the beginning that have the most impact,” Iyengar says.

Quitting smoking and limiting alcohol can also lower your cancer risk; both are linked to multiple cancers.   

“It's never too late to implement prevention strategies,” Iyengar says. “A lot of folks will oftentimes think, ‘Well, you know, I've spent the majority of my life not eating well or not being active.’ There are several studies now which indicate that even folks who implement lifestyle modification later on in their lives do experience a benefit in terms of lowering the risk of several of these cancers.”