New research highlights a worrying trend: a number of cancers are increasing in people under 50, often referred to as “early onset cancer”. The report, undertaken by the World Cancer Research Fund, looked at data from 12 different cancer types in England, the US and the Netherlands over the past 20 years.
Rising Cancer Rates in Under-50s
While there were slight variations among the three countries, larger patterns are clear. Among women under 50 in England, breast, bowel, uterine, kidney, liver, pancreatic and stomach cancers have increased. For men under 50 in England, there were increases in bowel, kidney, liver, pancreatic and prostate cancers.
The data indicates that younger generations are experiencing a higher incidence of some cancers than previous generations at the same age. Put more simply: you have a higher chance of cancer at a younger age than your parents.
Potential Explanations
Scientists are working to unpick what has changed between generations that might be driving this uptick, especially trying to find things people may have been exposed to during childhood or adolescence in the 1990s that they wouldn’t have been in the 1950s.
Potential explanations include significant changes in diet over the past 50 years, with the rise in ultra-processed and fast foods as well as sugary drinks. The population is also more sedentary. These changes are linked to rising levels of excess weight and obesity, which are risk factors for chronic inflammation, insulin resistance and metabolic dysfunction, all linked to higher cancer incidence.
Globally, obesity rates have more than doubled among adults and quadrupled among adolescents since 1990. Data collected in 2024 found that about 66% of adults in England were either overweight or living with obesity.
But diet, physical activity and excess body weight doesn’t fully explain the rise of certain cancers, such as breast cancer, in young people. Studies have shown that for women before menopause, a higher BMI is linked to a slightly lower risk of cancer, in contrast to older women.
Scientists are also looking at the health impact of sustained exposure to environmental toxins like air and water pollution, chemicals and plastics that have become widespread over the past 50 years. It has been scientifically challenging to identify one toxin that explains the global increase in cancers.
Progress and Uncertainty
On the positive side, one area of progress in young people is lung cancer, largely driven by anti-smoking campaigns and widespread awareness of the links between smoking and lung cancer.
None of the continuing research into risk factors for early onset cancer should mean attaching blame to patients. Scientists estimate that only 40% of cancers at a population level are because of an “individually modifiable” behaviour like smoking, alcohol consumption, diet, physical activity, or weight. The other 60% is a mix of ageing, genetic susceptibility, infection, possible environmental factors, and sometimes just bad luck.
With research and investment continuing into scientific research, we will eventually learn what’s driving the rise in cancer in younger people. But for now, that mystery is still to be uncovered.
