In fact, believing that this disease is “an older people’s thing” can lead to late detection and an irreversible prognosis.” We are far from having the right level of public awareness and knowledge about cancer in young adults,” Daniel Stark, leader of the Adolescent and Young Adult Oncology Unit in the UK, told BBC World.
But what are the most common cancers in this age group? Is there a way to prevent them?
According to several specialists and different public health organizations consulted by BBC World, some of the most common cancers or groups of cancers between 15 and 39 years of age worldwide are:
Since many important morphological changes occur between the ages of 15 and 39, the incidence of these cancers varies considerably by age.
“For example, between 29 and 39, carcinomas are much more common than at younger ages,” Dr. Annalisa Trama, a specialist at the National Tumor Institute in Milan in Italy, told BBC Mundo.
“In younger age groups, leukemias, lymphomas, cancers of the nervous system, sarcomas and genital tumors are more common,” Trama said.
The incidence of cancers also varies by gender. Women are more likely to develop breast, thyroid, cervical, and ovarian cancer.
“While in men the most common diagnoses are lymphomas, testicular cancer, leukemia and thyroid,” says the specialist.
In the case of leukemia, it is a cancer with a higher incidence in adolescents.
“It’s a disease that becomes less common beyond 8-10 years of age,” says Stark.
Which are the most dangerous?
According to Professor Stark, the tumors that represent a greater challenge for adolescents and young adults are brain tumors and carcinomas, especially those lodged in the digestive tract.
“Brain tumors are challenging because the possibilities of treatment and the prognosis of recovery are extremely poor,” says the specialist.
According to expert Daniel Stark, brain tumors have hardly changed their epidemiology in recent years. GETTY IMAGES
According to the British National Health Service (NHS), brain tumours can manifest with headaches, seizures, dizziness, recurrent nausea, memory problems, personality changes, progressive weakness and paralysis in one part of the body and vision or speech problems.
In the case of tumors of the digestive system, the challenge is that they are being a “changing area in carcinogenic epidemiology.”
“We are seeing a rapid increase in carcinomas in this area in young adults over the past 10-15 years. It’s a disease we almost never saw but now far from unusual,” Stark says.
According to the American Cancer Society, symptoms of cancers in the digestive system can include loss of appetite, unexpected weight loss, abdominal pain and discomfort, feeling of stomach heaviness after light food, heartburn, nausea, vomiting, abdominal swelling, blood in the stool and anemia.
The organization clarifies that these symptoms are also common to other diseases, but if they persist you should go to the doctor to clarify the causes.
Why are cancers at this age a big challenge?
Although the chances of developing cancer for adolescents and young adults are lower than in older ages, this population group has certain characteristics that maximize their risk when it comes to treating and identifying themselves.
For example, being ages in which many physiological changes occur, carcinogenic epidemiology includes pediatric and adult tumors.
“This group also has specific tumor biology and genomics, which differs from children and older adults. In addition, due to the age difference, the pharmacology is different as is the potential impact of the efficacy of the therapy,” explains Dr. Trama.
Added to this is the insufficient awareness that cancer is a possibility in this age group. A phenomenon that occurs both in patients and their families and in health personnel.
“It’s a group that has also had limited participation in clinical research and difficult access to specialized treatments,” Trama says.
To some extent it is because, until recent decades, much of the cancer research focused on childhood tumors or the more adult population, ronald Barr, professor emeritus of pediatrics at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada, tells BBC World.
“An adult develops cancer at an average age of 65. If you think about it, those under 40 years of ageor develop are a relatively smaller proportion and end up in limbo where they are not young enough or adult enough to be treated by oncologists accustomed to treating those over 60,” Barr says.
And although in recent years more efforts have been made to address this problem, specialists consulted by BBC Mundo point out that there is still a lot of work to be done.
The dilemma between overdiagnosis and underdiagnosis
Finding a balance between the problem of overdiagnosis and underdiagnosis is one of the biggest medical challenges in dealing with cancer in adolescents and young adults.
On the one hand, there is a substantial proportion of young people with cancers who are never diagnosed.
“Most live in low- and middle-income countries (in regions like South America, Africa and Southeast Asia), which unfortunately is where the most people live,” Barr said.
It is estimated that in regions such as South America, Southeast Asia and Africa there are many cases of cancer in young patients who are never correctly diagnosed, hindering a real dimension of the problem. GETTY IMAGES
“Many patients from these regions may never present to the hospital, or may already be too sick to have a specific diagnosis,” Stark said.
For reasons like these, experts warn of the difficulty of establishing more concrete data on a global scale on a more accurate incidence of cancers at an early age.
However, overdiagnosis has also become a challenge that hinders both statistics and medical solutions.
It’s happening, for example, with thyroid cancer. In countries like the United States, thyroid cancers are being diagnosed by ultrasound tests.
Stark denounces that many times these tests are carried out in inexperienced conditions and without a real need to execute them. This results in a distorted picture of the actual magnitude of thyroid cancer, with many diagnoses confirmed in cases where there was no real risk of emperoamiento.
“There are types of cancer or states of cancer that, even if they grow, may never cause problems. An overdiagnosis can treat one of these cancers as if it were a disease that requires more aggressive management,” Stark says.
This results in some patients receiving a lot of radioactive material, a major operation, or toxic medications when they only needed surveillance, evaluation, and treatment when the problem became a concern.
A balanced and healthy diet can reduce your chances of developing cancer of the digestive system. GETTY IMAGES
Can cancer be prevented at this age?
Dr. Trama lists some cancers that have been linked to unhealthy lifestyles and conditions such as obesity: carcinomas of the digestive system, thyroid or ovarian cancer.
That is, they could be preventable by following public recommendations such as those of the World Cancer Research Forum (WCRF).
Some of these guidelines include:
maintain an adequate weight
be physically active
maintain a better diet, rich in a variety of whole grains, vegetables, fruits and legumes
avoid high-calorie foods
limit consumption of red and processed meats, alcohol and sugary drinks
Experts like Stark also call for increased knowledge and awareness to be more prepared.
“We need young people to know the symptoms of what cancer can be. We need them to know that they can also develop it and we need doctors who take young people who go to cancer consultations more seriously, rather than assuming that because they are this age they cannot develop cancer,” Stark said.
