Diagnosis rates for all types of cancer increased 15 percent in people in their 20s and 30s between 2010 and 2020 — three times faster than the national average, data from the Florida Cancer Connect Collaborative shows.
Rates have risen faster in women than in men, according to doctors who warn that patients are diagnosed when the disease is more advanced and harder to treat.
Researchers can’t explain the rise, but modern diets, antibiotic use and fungal infections have all been suggested as factors — but that wouldn’t explain why rates in Florida are growing so quickly, he writes Dailymail.
Breast cancer was the most common among young adults and the leading cause of cancer death, with colon cancer and leukemia among the fastest growing cancers.
Dr. Mohamedtaki Tejani, an oncologist at AdventHealth Cancer Institute, told the Orlando Sentinel: “Patients in their 20s and 30s used to be a rarity, now it’s the harsh reality.”
“What’s really sad is that younger patients typically present with more advanced stages of the disease because they’re not paying attention to their health.”
Among the young Florida women diagnosed with breast cancer is Domenica Fuller, 29, of Miami, who was preparing for her 2022 wedding when she noticed a lump on her left breast.
“I did a breast self-exam, I was in the shower and I don’t know why I decided to do one, but I did,” she told NBC 6, “and I felt something hard on my left breast.
It was just something that felt like a frozen grape in my breast.”
She was diagnosed with stage three ductal carcinoma, meaning the breast cancer had spread to another area of her body, making treatment more difficult.
She underwent surgery and four sessions of chemotherapy and radiotherapy and is now declared in remission.
Another Florida patient was Madeline Mordarski of Bradenton, who was diagnosed with stage one breast cancer in November 2022 after discovering a lump on her left breast a week before her 32nd birthday.
She underwent a bilateral mastectomy and several rounds of chemotherapy to treat the cancer and is now in remission.
And Amy Dowden, 33, from the UK, was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer in May.
She discovered a lump in her breast while on her honeymoon with husband Ben Jones in April. She recently shared a photo of herself with a shaved head while undergoing treatment.
The overall rate of diagnoses for all types of cancer among people ages 20 to 39 in Florida was 79.4 cases per 100,000 people in 2010, the data show.
But it has increased by about two percent each year since 2010. In 2020, the rate was 91.9 cases per 100,000 people.
In women under 50, the rate of diagnoses for all types of cancer increased from 118.6 to 131.5 over the same period.
But for men under 50, the report showed the rate remained stable at about 80 per 100,000 people.
The four types of cancer with the most diagnosed cases were thyroid cancer (6,103 cases), skin melanoma (3,615 cases), testicular cancer (2,922 cases) and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (2,774 cases).
However, the types of cancer that caused the most deaths were different from those with the most cases.
Between 2010 and 2020, the second leading cause of cancer deaths among young adults was leukemia, or blood cancer, which caused 583 deaths. This was followed by brain cancer (509 deaths), colon cancer (499) and cervical cancer (399).
Florida’s Republican senators are currently trying to pass a bill that would require insurance companies to cover annual skin cancer screenings in the state.
The bill — proposed by Republican Sen. Gayle Harrell — would require all health insurance companies in the state to cover these screenings by 2025 and would prohibit the imposition of deductibles, co-payments or other cost requirements on patients.
The bill does not specify from what age these screenings should be covered, although many dermatologists recommend starting annual screenings at age 20.
In the US, the rate of cancer diagnoses for all types of disease increased from 86 cases per 100,000 adults in this age group in 2010 to 89.6 cases per 100,000 in 2019, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). .
The figure fell in 2020 to 82.7, the latest data available, although this was likely due to the Covid pandemic, which led to fewer diagnoses as many people missed medical check-ups.
Doctors weren’t sure why Florida was seeing a faster rise in cancer among young people than the rest of the nation.
When it comes to breast cancer, Miami is known to be the “breast implant” capital of the United States, but recent studies have not linked this procedure to a significantly higher risk of developing breast cancer.
Of particular concern was colon cancer, which is often not detected until its advanced stages – when it is much more difficult to treat.
Among adults in their 20s and 30s, the rate of colon cancer rose from 4.8 to 6.2 cases per 100,000 in the decades to 2020 — or 30 percent.
The death rate also rose slightly, from 1.0 to 1.1 per 100,000, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
But a study published in JAMA in 2021 estimated that in just seven years, colon cancer could become the leading cause of death in people between the ages of 20 and 49.
While doctors are still investigating why colon cancer cases are on the rise, it is suspected to be due to antibiotic abuse and fungal infections in the intestines.
Antibiotic abuse could cause disease because it can lead to an imbalance of microbes in the gut, making it more likely that dangerous bacteria or fungi will take up residence and affect cells.
As for the rise in rates of other types of cancer across the country, doctors are puzzled, but surmise it could be due to more sedentary lifestyles, Western diets and alcohol consumption.
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2023-11-04 20:15:12
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