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Fiona fox's blog
There’s a current perception that we’re facing a ‘cancer epidemic’ of rising rates of cancer in younger adults. But does the data actually back up these claims? And if so, what might be responsible?
A new study, published in the BMJ Oncology, aimed to look into these questions by examining how rates of over 20 different types of cancer changed over the last couple of decades in younger adults (aged 20 to 49) and compared this to rates in older age groups (aged over 50) in England. The study also looked at the trends for many established behavioural risk factors for cancer including smoking, alcohol consumption, obesity, and fibre intake, in the younger and older age groups to try and understand what might explain any changes in cancer rates in the younger adults.
Journalists came along to this press briefing to hear from the authors of the study who spoke more about their results.
Speakers included:
Prof Montserrat García Closas, Group Leader in Integrative Cancer Epidemiology at The Institute of Cancer Research, London
Prof Amy Berrington, Group Leader in Clinical Cancer Epidemiology at the Institute of Cancer Research, London
Prof Marc Gunter, Chair in Cancer Epidemiology, Imperial College London
This Briefing was accompanied by an SMC Roundup of comments.