Cancer diagnoses are becoming more common among adults under 50, according to new research published Aug. 16 in JAMA.
Specifically, diagnoses of gastrointestinal cancers had "the fastest-growing incidence rates among all early-onset cancer groups," researchers wrote. While gastrointestinal cancers showed the most significant incidence rates in early cancer diagnoses, overall breast cancer had the highest total number of incident cases.
For the study, researchers looked at cases of early-onset cancers in 562,145 patients between 2010 and 2019. Data were analyzed with age-standardized incident rates per 100,000 individuals and adjusted to account for standards in the U.S. population.
"By age group, the incidence rate of early-onset cancers increased in individuals aged 30 to 39 years and remained stable in other age groups younger than 50 years," researchers wrote.
Women were also more likely than men to receive an early cancer diagnosis, they reported. The same was true for non-White individuals who are more likely to receive these diagnoses than White individuals. Additionally, of the 562,145 individuals, they found that 57.7 percent between 40 and 49 years of age also had early onset cancer.