Cancer is increasing in young people, but remains rare
December 5, 2024
This is a slightly updated post from February. Tomorrow will be a new post.
Cumulative change in cancer rate by age
Source: Abbott, WSJ Jan 11, 2024 LINK
A Wall Street Journal article earlier this year showed large increases in cancer diagnoses among those under 40. Cancer is terrible at any age, and cancer can cause many more years of lost life in those who are young. But a few words of caution are in order in interpreting this data.
Cancer is very rare in young adults, and remains very rare even when there is a large increase. For instance, there will be about two new cases of cancer diagnosed in adults ages 30-34 in a year, while there will be 12 new cases diagnosed in adults ages 60-64. Here’s a graphic that shows cancer incidence by age:
Source: National Cancer Institute, data is from 2013-2017 LINK
We should continue to be vigilant about warning signs of cancer for people of all ages, and the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) started recommending colon cancer screening beginning at age 45 in 2021. The USPSTF lowered the age for recommended every-other-year mammography to 40 in April 2024.
Implications for employers:
The Affordable Care Act requires that USPSTF preventive care recommendations are covered without cost sharing
Although cancer diagnoses have increased in younger adults, these cancers remain rare.
Employers should be aware that cancer screening tests of any type performed on populations at lower risk, such as younger adults, are likely to have many false positives.
Employers should insist that analysis of the effectiveness of cancer screening uses a population similar to the employed population, as the prevalence of undiagnosed cancers is much higher in an elderly population.