Rise in cancer among young adults linked to 'increased consumption of highly-processed foods'

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00:00We're going to focus on the worrying increase of cancer diagnosis among under-50s. Between

00:051990 and 2019, the number of cancer cases in people under 50 is said to have risen by

00:13almost 80% according to an international study published in 2023 in the British Medical Journal.

00:20The rates of stomach cancer has been particularly increasing among under-50s. Delanda Souza

00:26has this report.

00:29It was two years ago when, out of the blue, this 39-year-old was diagnosed with colon

00:33cancer.

00:34It was a surprise. It doesn't run in my family. I was in good health.

00:39Today, Emilie Thirillon is in remission. But like her, more and more young people are being

00:43diagnosed with gastrointestinal cancer, including colon, pancreatic and liver cancer. Gastrointestinal

00:51cancer rates have been on the rise in patients under 50 and the causes remain unclear.

00:57In the past, the increase was attributed to obesity, tobacco and alcohol intake. However,

01:03new tests are being conducted to find out what could be behind the recent rise. Experiments

01:07are underway using hair, fat and blood samples collected from 300 colon cancer patients.

01:13We're looking for toxins in foods, everything that may have contaminated it, like packaging.

01:20We also check for traces of antibiotics.

01:25Gastrointestinal cancers account for a quarter of all new cancer cases and a third of cancer

01:30deaths worldwide.

01:32We're going to talk more about this now and bring in Jonathan Fisher, who's an associate

01:37professor at UCHealth and his research focuses on immunotherapy for solid cancer. Jonathan,

01:44thanks so much for joining us on the programme.

01:47So age and worrying and growing older is a top risk factor for cancer. What, in your

01:52view, is driving this increase in stomach cancers among young adults?

01:57So I think there are a few things which are contributing towards this. There's for a while

02:02been some quite good evidence to suggest that it's related to increased consumption of highly

02:09processed foods, a more kind of fast food based diet as opposed to more natural fruit

02:17and vegetable based diets. This may have driven the increase in the US and in the UK. But

02:26clearly this isn't the only factor. And I think it's really important that more research

02:30is going on to determine exactly what the driving causes of this increase might be.

02:37And we know that cancers aren't common among people between age between 20 to 29. So there

02:44aren't many widely recommended screening tests to look for cancer in people in that age.

02:48Does the industry need to sort of revamp and do more to provide methods, make them more

02:55available for people to get diagnosed?

02:58So I think improving screening programmes and also improving people's education about

03:04what they can do to help reduce the potential risks would both be really helpful. So to

03:10give an example, it's now widely accepted that smoking and lung cancer are connected

03:16and we've seen a drop in smoking rates in a lot of countries. I think if we can increase

03:24people's awareness of the fact that consuming a highly processed diet and so on may increase

03:31your risk of gastrointestinal cancer, then maybe we can help people not only prevent

03:37things but also help pick things up so that then they can go and seek additional medical

03:42attention if they start feeling unusual symptoms and know what to look out for.

03:47Well, let's stay with prevention. Give us more advice on how we can prevent cancer developing

03:53in ourselves. You mentioned diet, you mentioned smoking. What else can we do to prevent cancer?

04:00I think avoiding things where there is a good level of evidence that links those things

04:12to cancer. So for instance, to start from the outside in, making sure you use good quality

04:19high-factor sunblock when you're out in the sun. We know that that can reduce risk of

04:25skin cancer. As I said, we've already discussed smoking. I think trying to ensure that you have

04:32a diet that is rich in fruit and vegetables and fresh food as opposed to highly processed

04:40fast food or ready meal based food with a lot of extensive industrial production processes

04:49that have gone into it. I think maintaining a healthy body weight is really important.

04:55There are a lot of links between cancer and obesity and in general, staying active and

05:04well I think are the sort of things that people need to do. We're seeing a trend in recent

05:11years of increasing body weight and more sedentary behaviours because work is now something that

05:18we largely do sat down. People sit down a lot more now than they maybe did 50 years

05:23ago.

05:24Yeah, for sure. Many of us not getting our steps in, our daily steps in. Jonathan, talk

05:31to us about whether there are any good news here. We've talked about the worrying increase

05:36in cancer among people under 50. Are you seeing any promising progress in research and understanding

05:43and treating cancers in younger people?

05:47Yeah, so there are a lot of really positive messages as well from the diagnosis and understanding

05:56of cancer all the way through to new therapies that are happening. To give you an example,

06:01I work in a field called immunotherapy which harnesses the power of the immune system to

06:07attack cancer and we've been seeing some great success in blood cancer using immune cells

06:15from patients that have been modified so that they can kill cancer cells and now we're starting

06:22to see those being used in solid cancers, so in cancers that form lumps. One of the

06:28hospitals in London has just announced a big programme to really push this forward for

06:35solid cancer patients. So I think we are seeing a lot of promise. There's still a lot of work

06:39to be done but we're now in a position to better understand the disease and to better

06:45design specific treatments that are really more thought out to be able to target the

06:52cancer specifically.

06:54We got some news today from coming out of the UK saying that prostate cancer is the

06:58most prevalent form of the disease now in the UK. What would you say is the most prevalent

07:06form of cancer among younger adults?

07:10I think leukemia still comes out as the top-ranked cancer. I think then really beyond that, you

07:21have to separate it out into whether you're talking about cancer in the brain or cancer

07:27in other parts of the body. For example, I see a lot of teenagers who have bone cancer

07:34and there's a bone cancer called osteosarcoma which is probably one of the commonest cancers

07:39in teenagers. It really does depend on the age of the patient.

07:44Jonathan, best of luck with the work you do. Thank you so much for joining us on the programme

07:48and giving your insight there. We really appreciate it.

07:51Thank you very much.

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