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Why Are More Young People Getting Cancer? October 7, 2026 · 9:17 · With Maya, Alex, and Grace
Grace joins us for health and medicine, and Alex joins us for reporting. Thanks for listening.
Transcript Maya Welcome to Slow English FM. This is our round table, where we look at one important story from several angles. I’m Maya. Grace joins us for health and medicine, and Alex joins us for reporting. Thanks for listening. We’re discussing reports of rising cancer rates among younger people, and why colorectal cancer may be found at a later stage in younger patients. Maya The central finding is that rates of several cancers have risen faster among people under 50 than among older age groups in three countries studied. That is important, but it does not mean cancer is more common in younger people overall. Alex, what did the analysis find? Alex The Guardian reports that researchers analyzed cancer data from England, the United States, and the Netherlands. They found significant increases in early-onset cases of seven cancer types in England, five in the United States, and four in the Netherlands. Here, early-onset means diagnosed before age 50. Across the three countries, rates among people under 50 rose faster than rates among older age groups. Grace That comparison describes the direction of change, not which age group has the most cancer. The Guardian’s account of the analysis says cancer remains uncommon among people under 50. In England, the median age at cancer diagnosis is above 60. The median is the midpoint: half of diagnoses are above that age and half are below it. So we can take the increase seriously without losing sight of the fact that cancer is much more common at older ages. Maya Alex, can you give us a specific example of how the rate changed? Alex For bowel cancer, also called colorectal cancer, the rate among people under 50 in England rose from 3.9 cases per 100,000 people in 2001 to 8.4 per 100,000 in 2023, according to The Guardian’s account. That is a clear increase over time. But the number is a rate across a population. It is not an estimate of any one person’s chance of having cancer. Maya Grace, what do researchers say may be contributing to the wider rise? Grace The researchers named several possible contributors: obesity, poor diets, too little exercise, alcohol, smoking, and environmental exposures. Those are possible factors, not a list of proven causes for each case. The researchers also said that greater awareness of symptoms and earlier diagnosis may explain part of the increase, but not all of it. That matters because a rise in diagnoses can reflect a change in how often disease occurs, how often it is detected, or both. Alex There is also a separate line of research about a possible biological clue. The Guardian reported on a study of 981 colorectal tumors from 11 countries. Mutations linked to colibactin were more than three times as common in tumors from patients under 40 as in tumors from patients over 70. Colibactin is a toxin made by some strains of E. coli, a common type of bacteria. Maya Grace, does that finding show that colibactin caused the rise? Grace No. The researchers said the study does not prove that colibactin causes the increase in early-onset cancer. It found a difference in mutations between tumors from the two age groups. That makes colibactin a question for further research. It does not establish what caused the mutations, or what caused the wider rise in cancer rates. We should keep that distinction clear. Alex A separate study gives a longer international view of colorectal cancer. As The Guardian reported in 2024, rates among people aged 25 to 49 rose in 27 of 50 countries during the decade through 2017. That was the latest year included in that study. It is historical evidence of a pattern, not a current measure of rates in 2026. Maya Let’s turn to the second part of the question: why colorectal cancer in younger patients may be found late. The evidence about rising rates and the evidence about stage at diagnosis describe different things. Alex, what did the report from Australia say? Alex The Guardian reported that bowel cancer rates among Australians aged 20 to 39 more than doubled between 2001 and 2021. They rose from 4.4 cases per 100,000 to 10.3 per 100,000. The article also reported that younger patients were more likely than older patients to be diagnosed at stage III or stage IV. These are later stages of the disease. That finding tells us about the stage at diagnosis. By itself, it does not explain why younger patients were more likely to be diagnosed at those stages. Maya Grace, how does screening fit into that picture? Grace The CDC says most people in the United States should begin colorectal cancer screening at age 45. Screening looks for disease in people who do not have symptoms. A diagnostic test is different: it is used to investigate symptoms. So the usual screening age is not a reason for someone younger to ignore symptoms. Screening guidance and the decision to investigate symptoms answer different questions. Alex The CDC also says colorectal cancer almost always develops from polyps. A polyp is an abnormal growth in the colon or rectum. Screening can find polyps so they can be removed before they become cancer. It can also find cancer early, when treatment works best, according to the CDC. So screening can help identify some growths before they become cancer, as well as detect cancer at an earlier stage. Grace The CDC says some people may need to start screening before 45, or be screened more often. Its guidance includes people with inflammatory bowel disease, a personal or family history of colorectal cancer or polyps, and people with certain genetic syndromes. That means the general starting age for most people is not a complete description of screening for every person. Maya Alex, can we connect the Australian report with the screening guidance? Alex We should connect them carefully. The Australian report describes rising bowel cancer rates among younger adults and a higher likelihood of later-stage diagnosis among younger patients than among older patients. The CDC guidance explains screening in the United States, including the usual starting age and some groups who may need earlier or more frequent screening. These findings do not establish that screening age explains the Australian pattern, or that one explanation accounts for late diagnosis everywhere. Grace Right. Screening is one part of the picture, and it is not the same as testing symptoms. The available findings also do not give us one proven cause for the rise in younger people. Researchers have named possible contributors, and the tumor study raises a biological question, but it does not settle that question. We can describe the trend and the difference in stages at diagnosis while being careful not to turn possible explanations into established causes. Maya The main message is that cancer rates among younger people have risen faster in several countries and for several cancer types, even though cancer remains much more common at older ages. Alex brought us the international figures and the Australian report on later-stage diagnoses. Grace explained possible contributors, the limits of the colibactin study, and the difference between screening and testing symptoms. Thanks for joining us on Slow English FM.
