5 ms·

Colorectal cancer is rising among younger adults

77 points by 1970-01-01 4y ago

GalenErso 4y ago
> excess body weight, lack of physical activity, high consumption of processed meat and red meat, very high alcohol consumption > “We know that smoking, alcohol, lack of physical activity, being overweight or obese, increased consumption of red meat – so basically, dietary factors and environmental and lifestyle factors – are likely playing a big role,” > There could be correlations between obesity in younger adults, the foods they eat and the increase in colorectal cancers for the young adult population > “I think younger people are on average consuming less healthy food – fast food, processed snacks, processed sugars – and I think that those foods also contain higher concentrations of carcinogens and mutagens, in addition to the fact that they are very fattening,” > “it’s likely some kind of exposure, whether it be diet, medication, changing microbiome,” that is driving the rise in colorectal cancers in younger adults.
inciampati 4y ago
I'm curious if anyone has any insight. The recent rise in this does feel like something dietary or environmental will be involved. The fact that it's colon cancer definitely suggests dietary type exposures. Are there major changes in diet in the past few decades that we can point to? Are there some countries where this is happening and others where it isn't?
- pydry 4y ago
  My guess would be more processed food. The other most likely culprit is alcohol, but young people are drinking less of that.
  - programmarchy 4y ago
    Could also be compounded by sitting on our asses all day (literally, not figuratively).
  - steve_adams_86 4y ago
    If I recall correctly, those figures in the USA and Canada for example have been falling very slightly only recently, after decades of increasing. I suspect the rates of cancer we see wouldn’t have had a chance to decrease as a result. Cancer from poor nutrition is a cumulative thing, so we wouldn’t see meaningful changes from a few % decrease in alcohol consumption for many years (if at all). This may be different in other countries too, so apologies if you aren’t thinking strictly within the North America bubble.
  - rubicon33 4y ago
    My guess is either some chemical or food additive used in the industrial processing of foods that we are consuming in processed foods, or even more terrifying if true, some kind of pesticide that has been introduced in the last 20 years and is only now bearing its teeth.
    - steve_adams_86 4y ago
      It’s tempting to suspect something awful like that, but looking at high quality meta analyses of the lifestyles of people who get most common diseases will reveal just how harmful our diets are — even without pesticides and industrial additives bearing teeth. It’s consistent the world over; you can plainly eat, drink, and sit yourself to death. I’m not saying the pesticides and preservatives don’t matter, I just doubt anything new has popped up to make things worse. It’s already been pretty bad for many decades. In the case of Lawson, it could have been a case of genetics rather than diet; she appears relatively healthy and is very young. But these outliers aren’t unheard of, and make for a kind of shocking story when presented with statistics about cancer rates in younger adults increasing. The average age is much higher though, and the health of the average person getting these cancers is likely worse. This isn’t anything all that new, and more so a continuation of trends.
  - inciampati 4y ago
    I was thinking of that or maybe pesticides. Something like pesticides could be visible from different effects in different countries.
  - Qem 4y ago
    > My guess would be more processed food. Mine would be colon proximity to pockets where we carry our omnipresent smartphones all day around. I think a simple test to this hypothesis is to see if there is correlation between tumor position and if the person is left or right handed, as the phone probably will be stored in a preferred side pocket, according to handedness.
    - Supermancho 4y ago
      This is a good idea and I would donate to such a study.
- chiefalchemist 4y ago
  What has increased is the consumption of sugar, HFC and/or faux sweeteners. All are seen as harmless and normalized. You can thank Big Sugar for that. The type and level of sugars is historically abnormal (as is the consumption of animal proteins). https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/09/13/493739074/50-years-ago-sugar-industry-quietly-paid-scientists-to-point-blame-at-fat https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/09/13/493739074...
- kyleyeats 4y ago
  My vote is for added iron. Processed food producers add iron that can't be digested to lots of foods (cereal is the biggest offender) to look good for the nutrition label. It just drags along the GI tract at higher and higher concentrations as you digest your food.
- BlanchedAlmond 4y ago
  Too many things. Added on purpose to food (preservatives, etc), added on purpose to produce (pesticides, etc..), added by chance to processed food (mineral oil...).
- throw_away1525 4y ago
  Microplastics and weird chemicals like phthalates? I've been on a health kick lately and on paper tinned sardines seem excellent. Tons of protein, calcium, omega 3, etc... You can get them packed in water or mustard or tomato sauce or olive oil if you are worried about seed oils (which I am, and lots are packed in sunflower oil). Low mercury. Too bad that 100 grams of sardines can contain up to 30 milligrams of microplastics! Turns out that the ocean is full of plastic, which plankton eat since microplastics are just the right size for them, then the sardines eat the plankton. And then if you eat sardines... Of course most people aren't getting cancer from eating sardines, but microplastics are absolutely ubiquitous. Sardines are just a great example of a huge concentration of microplastics where you might not expect it. (Oh and don't forget the BPA in the tin's plastic lining! Oh it's BPA free? I guess they used BPC as a plasticizer... there are very few studies about BPC so I guess it must be safe!) There was a study recently that showed fast foods contained huge amounts of phthalates - the researchers linked it to the plastic gloves that the food workers wear. Which is disgusting - why are we afraid of human skin touching our food? Do you honestly think people replace gloves more readily than they wash their hands?
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
thenipper 4y ago
Anecdotally this has been awful amongst my peers. My step kids dad died by38 from it. The oldest’s best friends dad has it. I know a handful of others who have had it or scares.
ranUltra 4y ago
Look at micro plastics, you will find your answers there.
- digdigdag 4y ago
  Do you have any studies that link microplastics to early onset colorectal cancer or you're just making wild claims?
  - throw_away1525 4y ago
    It is too early. The fact that the science hasn't been done yet doesn't mean that it is a wild claim. It is an extremely reasonable and obvious hypothesis.
EGreg 4y ago
Maybe because they sit so much, as opposed go all previous generations? They also have higher levels of obesity and diabetes. As an aside — didn’t they used to have studies that said sitting was as bad as smoking for health? What happened to those? The standing desk craze seems to have faded
- rubicon33 4y ago
  A bunch of studies came out showing that standing isn't really much better than sitting. It's movement that you need. We are born to move, but payed to sit.
  - inciampati 4y ago
    There is definitely a link with the lymphatic systems operation and movement. So there's even a mechanistic reason why sitting and standing but not moving aren't as good as moving around.
stuckinhell 4y ago
https://www.cancer.org/cancer/anal-cancer/causes-risks-prevention/risk-factors.html https://www.cancer.org/cancer/anal-cancer/causes-risks-preve... Infection by the human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most important risk factor for anal cancer. Most squamous cell anal cancers are linked to infection with HPV. HPV is a group of more than 150 related viruses, the same group of viruses that causes cervical cancer, as well as other kinds of cancer. In fact, women with a history of cervical cancer (or pre-cancer) have an increased risk of anal cancer.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- elorant 4y ago
  Don't we already have a vaccine for HPV?
  - toomuchtodo 4y ago
    We do, but uptake is not great in the US versus other developed countries [1]. There are efforts to improve this [2]. Australia’s high uptake rate is leading to possible eradication of cervical cancer by 2035 [3]. Tangentially, there is substantial evidence viruses lead to various cancers, and with vaccines being such high leverage wrt cost:value, we should be leaning hard into prevention (although mRNA and CRISPR will still be necessary paths for cancer treatment). [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6482788/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6482788/ [2] http://hpvroundtable.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/05_School_Entry_Requirements_for_HPV_Vaccination_WEB_updated.pdf http://hpvroundtable.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/05_Schoo... [3] https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/feb/02/australia-on-track-to-eliminate-cervical-cancer-by-2035-amid-rising-hpv-vaccination-rates https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/feb/02/austr...
    - yjftsjthsd-h 4y ago
      > but uptake is not great in the US versus other developed countries It's painfully confounded with other variables, but that could provide a (noisy) quick check on how likely it is that HPV causes the cancer increase, right? If there's an effective vaccine with varied uptake, then we should be able to compare countries by rate of vaccination and cancer, and see if there's a substantial negative correlation.
taopai 4y ago
Could sitting for long hours could be one contributing factor? Maybe this question is stupid but I am genuinely curious.
- test6554 4y ago
  I mean, if we’re speculating about butt-related things… anal sex has been steadily growing in popularity. Butt implants are a thing now. Also bidets have become more popular since the pandemic. But at least alien abductions isn’t trending like it was in the 90’s.
  - wombatpm 4y ago
    I’m sure the probe technology from an advanced alien race is perfectly safe
- imhoguy 4y ago
  And could holding in farts out of embarasment worsen it too?
  - fithisux 4y ago
    Hahahahahahahaha!!!!!!
- Supermancho 4y ago
  I would expect there would be a lot more observed cases at large software companies. I don't believe that's the case.
  - imhoguy 4y ago
    I think thanks to Agile standups it might have shifted into call-centers /s
MagicMoonlight 4y ago
It turns out making everything out of toxic plastic and eating garbage food full of random chemicals that were never really tested is a bad idea. I’m not particularly shocked. This is our century’s lead paint moment. If anyone survives the fertility crisis and the burning and the famine and they can still read and write then they’re going to be wondering what we were thinking. We basically just roll things out as they’re discovered and never stop to think about the consequences. Well here are the consequences.
- sbarre 4y ago
  Ahhh there's nothing like getting lectured on a Sunday morning by that one person who thinks they knows all the things that no one else knows. edit: to stay on topic, I find these comments are useless, and do not contribute to the discussion in any way. It's not backed up with evidence or any kind of data, it's just an opinion, and a hand-wavey one at that.
  - bruce343434 4y ago
    If "we" already "know" this then why does it fucking keep happening?
    - endemic 4y ago
      Corporations make more money by selling trash.
  - syzarian 4y ago
    Most of the things you believe are not backed evidence that you are personally aware of. Each of believes things to be even though we have at best only a heuristic argument to support them. It is clear to me that the American diet is poison. We add sugar to everything. It’s hard to buy bacon without sugar added. Our bread is more like pastry. When I lived in Germany the diet felt much better. It would not surprise me to find out that part of the rise of cancer is our over engineered food products.
  - somenameforme 4y ago
sinoue 4y ago
The obvious culprit is the increase in anal sex. https://bedbible.com/anal-sex-statistics/ https://bedbible.com/anal-sex-statistics/
- Traubenfuchs 4y ago
  ...and the obvious best quick fix is offering the HPV vaccine to everyone at all ages.
- test6554 4y ago
  You would expect to see statistically significant differences in the rates of colorectal cancer among men than women if “being on the receiving end of anal sex” was causing colorectal cancer.
  - sinoue 4y ago
    1 in 23 for men, 1 in 26 for women https://www.cancer.org/cancer/colon-rectal-cancer/about/key-statistics.html#:~:text=Overall%2C%20the%20lifetime%20risk%20of,risk%20factors%20for%20colorectal%20cancer https://www.cancer.org/cancer/colon-rectal-cancer/about/key-.... The concern is the dramatic increase in the younger generation. Using protection in either orifice should be encouraged. HPV is over 150 different cancers and the greatest cause of anal cancer. Better health education and increased HPV vaccination before sex is going to be key.
elbigbad 4y ago
This will be a great comment section full of people with their own pre-baked pet theories on what exactly is causing this. I’m sure microplastics, chemicals in foods, and “kids these days” will certainly make an appearance.
- guilhas 4y ago
  And covid vaccines side effects
- throw_away1525 4y ago
  And? What's your point? Many of us are worried about this, there's no guidance from our overlords, and there are some very obvious differences between diets today and diets $REFDELTA years ago. Speculation about microplastic, chemicals, lack of fiber, etc... is perfectly reasonable.
  - elbigbad 4y ago
    Thanks for the hysteria, “throwaway account.” But it is obvious to even the most casual observer that it’s 5G networks causing all of this.
datacruncher01 4y ago
My bet would be the amount of preservatives in food is a contributing factor. Sure, it prevents bacterial contamination of our food, but once introduced to your body how is it impacting your gut biome? It's filled with bacteria that are just as susceptible to those preservatives. And we now know that affecting your gut biome means that your digestive tract is more susceptible to illness.
stephen_g 4y ago
There are so many factors, so it’s hard to know what’s causing the shift. I think a lot of it will be to do with highly processed foods and a lack of fibre, but one interesting one I didn’t know about until recently was dairy consumption, which appears to potentially have a significant protective effect according to observational studies [1]. Perhaps the popularity of non-dairy milks is one of many factors? 1. https://aacrjournals.org/cebp/article/29/11/2309/72050/Dairy-Consumption-and-Risks-of-Colorectal-Cancer https://aacrjournals.org/cebp/article/29/11/2309/72050/Dairy...
- Qem 4y ago
  It appears dairy took the place previously occupied by eggs and animal fats as villain food lately, everyone I know appears to be trying to avoid it.
jononomo 4y ago
It is so tragic that this article lists "consumption of red meat" as a risk factor for developing colorectal cancer. This association has not been demonstrated. To understand more, you can watch this youtube video in which Nina Teicholz breaks down the science around red meat and health: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rz-8H_i1wA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rz-8H_i1wA (skip to 9:30 for the discussion of colon cancer).
m0llusk 4y ago
Improved testing coverage, sensitivity, and diagnostics are strong factors as called out at the end of the article.

77 points by 1970-01-01 4y ago

> excess body weight, lack of physical activity, high consumption of processed meat and red meat, very high alcohol consumption > “We know that smoking, alcohol, lack of physical activity, being overweight or obese, increased consumption of red meat – so basically, dietary factors and environmental and lifestyle factors – are likely playing a big role,” > There could be correlations between obesity in younger adults, the foods they eat and the increase in colorectal cancers for the young adult population > “I think younger people are on average consuming less healthy food – fast food, processed snacks, processed sugars – and I think that those foods also contain higher concentrations of carcinogens and mutagens, in addition to the fact that they are very fattening,” > “it’s likely some kind of exposure, whether it be diet, medication, changing microbiome,” that is driving the rise in colorectal cancers in younger adults.

inciampati 4y ago

I'm curious if anyone has any insight. The recent rise in this does feel like something dietary or environmental will be involved. The fact that it's colon cancer definitely suggests dietary type exposures. Are there major changes in diet in the past few decades that we can point to? Are there some countries where this is happening and others where it isn't?

pydry 4y ago
My guess would be more processed food. The other most likely culprit is alcohol, but young people are drinking less of that.
- programmarchy 4y ago
  Could also be compounded by sitting on our asses all day (literally, not figuratively).
- steve_adams_86 4y ago
  If I recall correctly, those figures in the USA and Canada for example have been falling very slightly only recently, after decades of increasing. I suspect the rates of cancer we see wouldn’t have had a chance to decrease as a result. Cancer from poor nutrition is a cumulative thing, so we wouldn’t see meaningful changes from a few % decrease in alcohol consumption for many years (if at all). This may be different in other countries too, so apologies if you aren’t thinking strictly within the North America bubble.
- rubicon33 4y ago
  My guess is either some chemical or food additive used in the industrial processing of foods that we are consuming in processed foods, or even more terrifying if true, some kind of pesticide that has been introduced in the last 20 years and is only now bearing its teeth.
  - steve_adams_86 4y ago
    It’s tempting to suspect something awful like that, but looking at high quality meta analyses of the lifestyles of people who get most common diseases will reveal just how harmful our diets are — even without pesticides and industrial additives bearing teeth. It’s consistent the world over; you can plainly eat, drink, and sit yourself to death. I’m not saying the pesticides and preservatives don’t matter, I just doubt anything new has popped up to make things worse. It’s already been pretty bad for many decades. In the case of Lawson, it could have been a case of genetics rather than diet; she appears relatively healthy and is very young. But these outliers aren’t unheard of, and make for a kind of shocking story when presented with statistics about cancer rates in younger adults increasing. The average age is much higher though, and the health of the average person getting these cancers is likely worse. This isn’t anything all that new, and more so a continuation of trends.
- inciampati 4y ago
  I was thinking of that or maybe pesticides. Something like pesticides could be visible from different effects in different countries.
- Qem 4y ago
  > My guess would be more processed food. Mine would be colon proximity to pockets where we carry our omnipresent smartphones all day around. I think a simple test to this hypothesis is to see if there is correlation between tumor position and if the person is left or right handed, as the phone probably will be stored in a preferred side pocket, according to handedness.
  - Supermancho 4y ago
    This is a good idea and I would donate to such a study.
chiefalchemist 4y ago
What has increased is the consumption of sugar, HFC and/or faux sweeteners. All are seen as harmless and normalized. You can thank Big Sugar for that. The type and level of sugars is historically abnormal (as is the consumption of animal proteins). https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/09/13/493739074/50-years-ago-sugar-industry-quietly-paid-scientists-to-point-blame-at-fat https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/09/13/493739074...
kyleyeats 4y ago
My vote is for added iron. Processed food producers add iron that can't be digested to lots of foods (cereal is the biggest offender) to look good for the nutrition label. It just drags along the GI tract at higher and higher concentrations as you digest your food.
BlanchedAlmond 4y ago
Too many things. Added on purpose to food (preservatives, etc), added on purpose to produce (pesticides, etc..), added by chance to processed food (mineral oil...).
throw_away1525 4y ago
Microplastics and weird chemicals like phthalates? I've been on a health kick lately and on paper tinned sardines seem excellent. Tons of protein, calcium, omega 3, etc... You can get them packed in water or mustard or tomato sauce or olive oil if you are worried about seed oils (which I am, and lots are packed in sunflower oil). Low mercury. Too bad that 100 grams of sardines can contain up to 30 milligrams of microplastics! Turns out that the ocean is full of plastic, which plankton eat since microplastics are just the right size for them, then the sardines eat the plankton. And then if you eat sardines... Of course most people aren't getting cancer from eating sardines, but microplastics are absolutely ubiquitous. Sardines are just a great example of a huge concentration of microplastics where you might not expect it. (Oh and don't forget the BPA in the tin's plastic lining! Oh it's BPA free? I guess they used BPC as a plasticizer... there are very few studies about BPC so I guess it must be safe!) There was a study recently that showed fast foods contained huge amounts of phthalates - the researchers linked it to the plastic gloves that the food workers wear. Which is disgusting - why are we afraid of human skin touching our food? Do you honestly think people replace gloves more readily than they wash their hands?

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

thenipper 4y ago

Anecdotally this has been awful amongst my peers. My step kids dad died by38 from it. The oldest’s best friends dad has it. I know a handful of others who have had it or scares.

ranUltra 4y ago

Look at micro plastics, you will find your answers there.

digdigdag 4y ago
Do you have any studies that link microplastics to early onset colorectal cancer or you're just making wild claims?
- throw_away1525 4y ago
  It is too early. The fact that the science hasn't been done yet doesn't mean that it is a wild claim. It is an extremely reasonable and obvious hypothesis.

EGreg 4y ago

Maybe because they sit so much, as opposed go all previous generations? They also have higher levels of obesity and diabetes. As an aside — didn’t they used to have studies that said sitting was as bad as smoking for health? What happened to those? The standing desk craze seems to have faded

rubicon33 4y ago
A bunch of studies came out showing that standing isn't really much better than sitting. It's movement that you need. We are born to move, but payed to sit.
- inciampati 4y ago
  There is definitely a link with the lymphatic systems operation and movement. So there's even a mechanistic reason why sitting and standing but not moving aren't as good as moving around.

stuckinhell 4y ago

https://www.cancer.org/cancer/anal-cancer/causes-risks-prevention/risk-factors.html https://www.cancer.org/cancer/anal-cancer/causes-risks-preve... Infection by the human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most important risk factor for anal cancer. Most squamous cell anal cancers are linked to infection with HPV. HPV is a group of more than 150 related viruses, the same group of viruses that causes cervical cancer, as well as other kinds of cancer. In fact, women with a history of cervical cancer (or pre-cancer) have an increased risk of anal cancer.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
elorant 4y ago
Don't we already have a vaccine for HPV?
- toomuchtodo 4y ago
  We do, but uptake is not great in the US versus other developed countries [1]. There are efforts to improve this [2]. Australia’s high uptake rate is leading to possible eradication of cervical cancer by 2035 [3]. Tangentially, there is substantial evidence viruses lead to various cancers, and with vaccines being such high leverage wrt cost:value, we should be leaning hard into prevention (although mRNA and CRISPR will still be necessary paths for cancer treatment). [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6482788/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6482788/ [2] http://hpvroundtable.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/05_School_Entry_Requirements_for_HPV_Vaccination_WEB_updated.pdf http://hpvroundtable.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/05_Schoo... [3] https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/feb/02/australia-on-track-to-eliminate-cervical-cancer-by-2035-amid-rising-hpv-vaccination-rates https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/feb/02/austr...
  - yjftsjthsd-h 4y ago
    > but uptake is not great in the US versus other developed countries It's painfully confounded with other variables, but that could provide a (noisy) quick check on how likely it is that HPV causes the cancer increase, right? If there's an effective vaccine with varied uptake, then we should be able to compare countries by rate of vaccination and cancer, and see if there's a substantial negative correlation.

taopai 4y ago

Could sitting for long hours could be one contributing factor? Maybe this question is stupid but I am genuinely curious.

test6554 4y ago
I mean, if we’re speculating about butt-related things… anal sex has been steadily growing in popularity. Butt implants are a thing now. Also bidets have become more popular since the pandemic. But at least alien abductions isn’t trending like it was in the 90’s.
- wombatpm 4y ago
  I’m sure the probe technology from an advanced alien race is perfectly safe
imhoguy 4y ago
And could holding in farts out of embarasment worsen it too?
- fithisux 4y ago
  Hahahahahahahaha!!!!!!
Supermancho 4y ago
I would expect there would be a lot more observed cases at large software companies. I don't believe that's the case.
- imhoguy 4y ago
  I think thanks to Agile standups it might have shifted into call-centers /s

MagicMoonlight 4y ago

It turns out making everything out of toxic plastic and eating garbage food full of random chemicals that were never really tested is a bad idea. I’m not particularly shocked. This is our century’s lead paint moment. If anyone survives the fertility crisis and the burning and the famine and they can still read and write then they’re going to be wondering what we were thinking. We basically just roll things out as they’re discovered and never stop to think about the consequences. Well here are the consequences.

sbarre 4y ago
Ahhh there's nothing like getting lectured on a Sunday morning by that one person who thinks they knows all the things that no one else knows. edit: to stay on topic, I find these comments are useless, and do not contribute to the discussion in any way. It's not backed up with evidence or any kind of data, it's just an opinion, and a hand-wavey one at that.
- bruce343434 4y ago
  If "we" already "know" this then why does it fucking keep happening?
  - endemic 4y ago
    Corporations make more money by selling trash.
- syzarian 4y ago
  Most of the things you believe are not backed evidence that you are personally aware of. Each of believes things to be even though we have at best only a heuristic argument to support them. It is clear to me that the American diet is poison. We add sugar to everything. It’s hard to buy bacon without sugar added. Our bread is more like pastry. When I lived in Germany the diet felt much better. It would not surprise me to find out that part of the rise of cancer is our over engineered food products.
- somenameforme 4y ago

sinoue 4y ago

The obvious culprit is the increase in anal sex. https://bedbible.com/anal-sex-statistics/ https://bedbible.com/anal-sex-statistics/

Traubenfuchs 4y ago
...and the obvious best quick fix is offering the HPV vaccine to everyone at all ages.
test6554 4y ago
You would expect to see statistically significant differences in the rates of colorectal cancer among men than women if “being on the receiving end of anal sex” was causing colorectal cancer.
- sinoue 4y ago
  1 in 23 for men, 1 in 26 for women https://www.cancer.org/cancer/colon-rectal-cancer/about/key-statistics.html#:~:text=Overall%2C%20the%20lifetime%20risk%20of,risk%20factors%20for%20colorectal%20cancer https://www.cancer.org/cancer/colon-rectal-cancer/about/key-.... The concern is the dramatic increase in the younger generation. Using protection in either orifice should be encouraged. HPV is over 150 different cancers and the greatest cause of anal cancer. Better health education and increased HPV vaccination before sex is going to be key.

elbigbad 4y ago

This will be a great comment section full of people with their own pre-baked pet theories on what exactly is causing this. I’m sure microplastics, chemicals in foods, and “kids these days” will certainly make an appearance.

guilhas 4y ago
And covid vaccines side effects
throw_away1525 4y ago
And? What's your point? Many of us are worried about this, there's no guidance from our overlords, and there are some very obvious differences between diets today and diets $REFDELTA years ago. Speculation about microplastic, chemicals, lack of fiber, etc... is perfectly reasonable.
- elbigbad 4y ago
  Thanks for the hysteria, “throwaway account.” But it is obvious to even the most casual observer that it’s 5G networks causing all of this.

datacruncher01 4y ago

My bet would be the amount of preservatives in food is a contributing factor. Sure, it prevents bacterial contamination of our food, but once introduced to your body how is it impacting your gut biome? It's filled with bacteria that are just as susceptible to those preservatives. And we now know that affecting your gut biome means that your digestive tract is more susceptible to illness.

stephen_g 4y ago

There are so many factors, so it’s hard to know what’s causing the shift. I think a lot of it will be to do with highly processed foods and a lack of fibre, but one interesting one I didn’t know about until recently was dairy consumption, which appears to potentially have a significant protective effect according to observational studies [1]. Perhaps the popularity of non-dairy milks is one of many factors? 1. https://aacrjournals.org/cebp/article/29/11/2309/72050/Dairy-Consumption-and-Risks-of-Colorectal-Cancer https://aacrjournals.org/cebp/article/29/11/2309/72050/Dairy...

Qem 4y ago
It appears dairy took the place previously occupied by eggs and animal fats as villain food lately, everyone I know appears to be trying to avoid it.

jononomo 4y ago

It is so tragic that this article lists "consumption of red meat" as a risk factor for developing colorectal cancer. This association has not been demonstrated. To understand more, you can watch this youtube video in which Nina Teicholz breaks down the science around red meat and health: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rz-8H_i1wA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rz-8H_i1wA (skip to 9:30 for the discussion of colon cancer).

m0llusk 4y ago

Improved testing coverage, sensitivity, and diagnostics are strong factors as called out at the end of the article.