Researchers identify probable causes behind increase in different forms of cancer amongst millennials
Young adults are more susceptible than their parents to gastrointestinal cancers, a new study has revealed.
A new study has shown that Generation X and millennials are three to four times more likely than their parents to suffer from appendix cancer and other forms of gastrointestinal cancer, including cancers of the colon, the rectum and the stomach.
Researchers from Vanderbilt University Medical Center, West Virginia University and the University of Texas Health Science Center analyzed the birth years of 4,858 individuals who had been diagnosed with appendix cancer in the United States between 1975 and 2019.
Young adults more at risk of appendix cancer
The results of the study, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, found that people born between 1941 and 1949 were three times less likely to have appendix cancer than individuals born between 1976 and 1984, and four times less likely than those born between 1981 and 1989.
Dr. Andreana Holowatyj, the lead study author, revealed similar trends had been discovered in other gastrointestinal cancers, such as cancers of the colon, the rectum and the stomach.
With no standardized screening technique having yet been established to diagnose appendix cancer, the study didn’t focus on the reasons for the trend, although the researchers involved did offer a theory.
Possible reasons for gastrointestinal cancer trend
In the paper, they state “environmental exposures may increase risk for generations now entering mid-adulthood,” while Holowatyj added there were significant links between obesity and cancers of the appendix and colon.
Dr. Andrea Cercek, co-director of the Center for Early Onset Colorectal and GI Cancers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, was not part of the research team for the study but agreed with Holowatyj’s theory.
Cercek told CNN she wasn’t surprised young adults were more susceptible to such cancers, also citing obesity and “environmental changes” as key factors.
“There are a lot of suspects, including lifestyle changes, dietary changes. People talk about obesity, less activity. But there’s nothing that quite fits everyone. And then there are environmental changes. I think it’s probably some type of combination, something multifactorial, but we have not yet identified it. There is thankfully now a lot of work, a lot of research going into this.”
Appendix cancer symptoms
Typical symptoms of the disease include abdominal or pelvic pain, bloating, nausea and vomiting. Appendicitis, which sometimes precedes appendix cancer, usually displays similar systems.
Appendix cancer diagnoses are rare, with between one and two people per million affected in the U.S.
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