4 ms·
I'm guessing, since they don't state it clearly, that the combined rate of all cancers is falling, it's only when you look at subsets that it's rising. Which p
by ZeroGravitas 2y ago
I'm guessing, since they don't state it clearly, that the combined rate of all cancers is falling, it's only when you look at subsets that it's rising.
Which prompts the idea: "do different cancers compete for shared resources?"
Would a lung cancer use up something that would prevent a different kind of cancer and so once smoking goes out of fashion you get some rebound as other cancers step into the gap left by them?
edit: I looked at the paper and then followed the link to the paper they cite for a general increase in incidence in top cancers combined in Gen X by the time they reach 60.
> Some portion of these increases can be attributed to rising obesity rates19 and increasingly
sedentary lifestyles. 20-23 Another portion might be explained by changes in cancer registry policies
and International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 10th Revision
(World Health Organization) classifications, 24 leading to inclusion of relatively indolent lesions in
more recent periods that might not have been diagnosed as cancer in earlier periods. Furthermore,
radiologic diagnoses have become more common following widespread deployment of sophisticated
medical imaging technologies, 25 especially for thyroid 26,27 and kidney 28,29 cancers. We chose not to
exclude any leading cancer site from our summaries because our granular estimates are freely
available (eFigures 15-17 in Supplement 1).
https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cluster=5120010090140041393&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5 https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cluster=51200100901400413...
- HPsquared 2y agoI wonder if the immune system plays a role. In one environment there is some stressor (e.g. smoking) which raises for example lung cancer risk, but also turns up some built-in anti-cancer systems in the body - the action of which which would prevent cancers in other areas. Compare to a person in a better environment where the immune system isn't as much in "cancer-prevention mode".
- bamboozled 2y agoI wonder if the immune system plays a role. It's well established the immune system plays a role in cancer.
- HPsquared 2y agoA role in that effect, I mean.
- corgihamlet 2y agoIf you read the actual study referenced in the article you'll find that 10 of the 17 cancer types which are rising in the young cohorts are obesity-related. Lung cancer is actually down for the younger cohorts. Another interesting find was a rise in anal cancer and Kaposi's sarcomas which are mostly related to HIV infections.
- bookaway 2y ago>10 of the 17 cancer types which are rising in the young cohorts are obesity-related. This would mean that 40% is non-obesity related which seems...kinda high? The article has this line: >Bafflingly, many of the new clinic’s young patients are in good shape, exercise regularly and eat healthily. Is this supported by the study, or a journalistic observation?
- threeseed 2y agoAnother way of looking at it is survivorship bias. People who aren't dying of lung cancer and are now alive to die from other cancers.
- aquafox 2y ago> I'm guessing, since they don't state it clearly, that the combined rate of all cancers is falling, it's only when you look at subsets that it's rising. Sound's like Simpson's paradox: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simpson%27s_paradox https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simpson%27s_paradox