Cancer diagnosis on the rise in younger Australians at alarming rate

ABC NEWS (Australia)

According to figures obtained from cancer Australia by the ABC's four corners. At least ten types of cancer in younger Australians are rising at alarming rates.  At least one, bowel cancer, Australia leads the world in 30 to 39-year-olds rates have increased by 173 per cent.

Transcript

00:00You straight away think, why me? What have I done?

00:07I don't smoke, I don't drink, I wasn't obese.

00:10Fiona So was diagnosed with liver cancer when she was 40.

00:14It's one of the fastest rising cancers in younger Australians.

00:18Some of the young people we see who are slim, who don't drink alcohol,

00:22who don't have underlying liver disease,

00:24we're still scratching our head why.

00:26Since the year 2000, the data show remarkable increases in 30 to 39 year olds,

00:31ranging from 4% in breast cancer, right up to 500% in prostate cancer.

00:38Some, such as prostate cancer, might be explained by changes in the way they're diagnosed,

00:43but others can't be explained this way.

00:47Cancer has traditionally been a disease of ageing, but over the last 20 years

00:52there's been a real increase in the number of younger adults developing these cancers.

00:59All cancers are caused by genes.

01:02Some are inherited, but others are altered by toxins or toxic influences from the world around us.

01:10And that seems to be what's happening with this rise in early onset cancers.

01:15Research is finding that exposure, probably early in life, to a toxin from a bowel bug called E. coli,

01:23could be driving some of the DNA mutations that Associate Professor Dan Buchanan is seeing in bowel cancers.

01:30The story for that particular gut bacteria has gone well beyond an association into causation.

01:36Then there are assaults on our genes from exposure to chemicals and plastics.

01:41We're exposed to a broad universe of synthetic chemicals that our biology isn't familiar with.

01:50But whatever the cause is, people like Fiona still have to deal with their daily reality.

01:55I get infusions fortnightly at the hospital.

01:59It's keeping the cancer at bay, but it's not a cure.

02:03It's perfect.

02:04You don't know what's going on with it.

02:06The Prayasurer Anupuler

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