The mystery of what’s causing young people’s cancer leads to the gut
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Researchers have identified a focal point for the forces they suspect of driving up cancer cases in young people: the gut. They are searching people’s bodies and childhood histories for culprits.
Rates of gastrointestinal cancers among people under 50 are increasing across the globe. In the U.S., colorectal cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in men under 50 and second for women behind breast cancer. Each generation born since the 1950s has had higher risk than the one before.
“Everything you can think of that has been introduced in our society since really the 1960s, the post-World War II era, is a potential culprit," said Dr. Marios Giannakis, a gastrointestinal oncologist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. Robert F.
Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Health and Human Services secretary, has pointed to ultra-processed foods and chemicals in medicines and the environment. Cancer doctors share some of his suspicions about diet and exposure to contaminants such as microplastics, shards that make their way from packaging or clothing into our bodies through water and food. They are scrutinizing those and other potential hazards including “forever chemicals" and even light.
“We’re all concerned and want to do something quickly and act quickly, but we want to do so based on sound science," said Dr. Andrew Chan, director of epidemiology at Mass General Cancer Center in Boston. His team has found connections between early-onset colorectal cancer risk and obesity, consuming a lot of sugar-sweetened beverages and physical inactivity.
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