Cancers Linked to Obesity on the Rise Among Young Adults in the US

A recent study of young adults in the United States found that obesity is one of the reasons why cancer is spreading among young adults.

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A recent study of young adults in the United States found that obesity is one of the reasons why cancer is spreading among young adults.

The analysis released on 4 February was done by the American Cancer Society and published in the journal, The Lancet Public Health.

For the study, the researchers examined stats of 12 obesity-related cancers between 1995 and 2014 and 18 cancers which were not associated with weight. The results revealed a disturbing trend among adults in the age 24 to 49.

A report in CNN quoted the study’s co-author Ahmedin Jemal, who is the vice president of the Surveillance and Health Services Research Program for the American Cancer Society, who said:

The risk of cancer is increasing in young adults for half of the obesity-related cancers, with the increase steeper in progressively younger ages. The findings from this study are a warning for increased burden of obesity-related cancer in older adults in the future potentially halting or reversing the progress achieved in reducing cancer mortality over the past several decades.

The report stated that the obesity-related cancers which were increasing among the youth were colorectal, endometrial, gallbladder, kidney, pancreatic and multiple myeloma (bone marrow cancer).

Researchers say that these cancers normally get detected in patients in their 60s and 70s. But this study found that there was a significant increase of these cancers in young adults in the US.

This study has come at a time when the overall cancer incidence is decreasing in males and stabilizing in females in the US.

Ahmedin Jemal

In an earlier study published in the Lancet, researchers said that the pandemics of obesity, undernutrition, and climate change were interlinked and represented the paramount challenge for humans, the environment and the planet.

The report titled “Lancet Commission on Obesity”, was based on 14 countries including India, and demonstrated the need to take a hard line against powerful commercial interests and rethink global economic incentives within the food system in order to tackle these joint pandemics termed as ‘The Global Syndemic’.

The report called to establish a Framework Convention on Food Systems (FCFS) - similar to global conventions for tobacco control and climate change - to restrict the influence of the food industry in policy making and to mobilise national action for healthy, equitable and sustainable food systems.

With this analysis, the researchers hope that it becomes a wake up call for parents, doctors, policy makers and the public, with respect to childhood obesity.