Women under 50 are 82% more likely to get cancer than men

Cancer is showing a new, disturbing trend in the United States.

Released today, the latest report from the American Cancer Society (ACS) reveals a disturbing shift in cancer demographics, with women and young adults now bearing a greater burden of the disease, even as overall cancer deaths continue to decline. .

For example, cancer rates among women aged 50 to 64 have now surpassed men. Even more striking, women under 50 are now 82% more likely to be diagnosed with cancer than their male counterparts, a significant increase from 51% in 2002.

The shift can be attributed in part to increases in breast and thyroid cancers, the study said, which now account for nearly half of all cancers in people under 50 and mostly affect women.

At the same time, men under 50 are seeing a decline in diagnoses for common cancers such as melanoma, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and prostate cancer.

So what’s driving this worrying trend? According to Dr. Richard Barakat, chief physician at Northwell Health Cancer Institute, lifestyle changes are probably a major factor.

Take breast cancer for example. Women in the U.S. are having children later — or not at all — which could mean they are losing the protective benefits that pregnancy and breastfeeding provide against breast cancer, said Dr. Barracks for The Post.

In addition, heavy alcohol consumption, a major modifiable risk factor for breast cancer, has increased among American women. That change could also contribute to growth, Barakat said.

The ACS report comes after a stark warning about the link between alcohol and cancer from US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, who called for warning labels on alcoholic beverages – similar to those found on cigarette packs.

Lung cancer is another area where women are now outpacing men in younger age groups.

From 2012 to 2021, lung cancer diagnoses fell overall, but for the first time, women under 65 outnumbered men in new cases.

“I think women started smoking later than men and maybe they’re a little behind in stopping smoking,” Barakat said. Since 1965, smoking rates among women have fallen by about 59%, compared to a 66% decline among men.

There is also a worrying increase in cervical cancer.

After decades of decline thanks in part to the HPV vaccine, women ages 30 to 44 saw an 11% increase in cervical cancer diagnoses from 2013 to 2021.

Dr. Barakat suggested that increased vaccine hesitancy may be partly to blame, with some women skipping their shots.

“The other strange phenomenon we are seeing is that women are putting off going to the gynecologist,” Barakat. This means they are likely to miss critical screenings, such as Pap smears starting at age 21.

“If we were to vaccinate everyone who should be vaccinated and follow screening guidelines, cervical cancer is a disease that will likely be eradicated,” Barakat said.

The obesity crisis in the US is likely another contributing factor, especially when it comes to the gender and age gap in cancer diagnoses.

Federal data show that women are more likely to be obese than men (40% vs. 35%), and younger generations are more likely to be overweight or obese than their parents and grandparents.

“Fifty percent of all cancers are lifestyle-related,” Barakat said. “If you change your behavior, you can reduce your chances of so many of them.”

In addition to lifestyle factors, changes in screening guidelines may also explain the rising rates of some cancers, particularly among young adults. For example, last year the recommended age for mammography was lowered from 50 to 40.

“We’re getting a lot of early breast cancers that we might not have had in the past,” Barakat said. “We’re detecting a lot more early thyroid cancers, too.”

That’s likely because of improved imaging technology and the wider use of diagnostic tools, he said, which allow doctors to spot small, slow-growing tumors that may have previously been missed.

While overall cancer survival rates are on the rise and the country’s death rate fell by 34% from 1991 to 2022, some types of cancer are bucking the trend. Death rates are rising for cancers of the oral cavity, pancreas, uterine corpus and liver.

“Continued reductions in cancer mortality due to declining smoking, better treatment and earlier detection is certainly good news,” said Rebecca Siegel, senior scientific director, surveillance research at ACS and lead author. of the report.

“However, this progress is tempered by increased incidence among young and middle-aged women, who are often family caregivers, and a burden of cancer shifting from men to women, going back to the early 1900s, when cancer it was more common in women. she said.

The ACS estimates that in 2025, there will be 2,041,910 new cancer diagnoses in the US (about 5,600 per day) and 618,120 cancer deaths.