Source: ITV
Why is it that over the past 30 years or so the number of people with early-onset cancer has increased dramatically?
Early-onset cancers are those diagnosed before the age of 50 – and this upward trend shows no sign of slowing.
Most people weren’t aware of the issue until Catherine, Princess of Wales, at the age of 42, was diagnosed with cancer, the type of which remains private.
These cancers on the rise include those of the breast, colon, cervical, oesophagus, kidney, liver, head and neck, prostate, bone marrow, and pancreas.
A 2023 study reported that the early-onset incidence of 29 cancers increased by about 79 per cent globally between 1990 and 2019.
Early-onset cancer deaths have risen by about 28 per cent during that time.
During those past 30 years, as early-onset cancers took off, the obesity and type 2 diabetes epidemics also took off.
This suggests that poor diet and unhealthy living might be causing this spike in cancer among the under-50s.
It’s a reasonable conclusion, but it may not be the whole answer
Researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis have gone back to basics.
They asked: What if, since these early-onset cancers aren’t so much a consequence of chronological age (the number of years you’ve lived), what if they’re linked to the your biological age?
Biological age is determined by the extent of damage you’ve accumulated at a cellular and physiological level over time.
Biological age is determined by your diet, lifestyle (exercise, sleep and levels of stress), genetics and diseases you’ve experienced or continue to be plagued by. Your chronological age is also a factor.
“If you’re a 28-year-old male who doesn’t exercise, only eats high-fat foods, and has smoked five packs of cigarettes per day for the last 10 years, it’s likely you would have a biological age of greater than 28 years,” an example from Healthline reads.
It seems, then, common sense that your biological age (the shape you’re in) would affect cancer risk. If your biological age is accelerated (sped up by how you’re living).
Proving it scientifically is a different matter.
For this study, researchers analysed the data of more than 148,000 people in the UK Biobank.
According to a report in Medical News Today, each participant’s biological age was calculated from readings of nine biomarkers in the blood.
If a study participant’s biological age was higher than their chronological age, they were deemed to have accelerated ageing.
After analysing biological age and accelerated ageing data, the researchers found that participants born in or after 1965 had a 17 per cent increased likelihood of accelerated ageing compared to those born between 1950 and 1954.
That is, about one in six people born since 1965 are ageing biologically faster (are in worse shape) than Baby Boomers.
Researchers discovered accelerated ageing was associated with higher risks of developing these early-onset cancers.
The strongest associations were: