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Cancers among young people have almost doubled, says expert (www.swissinfo.ch)

submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Cancers in people under the age of 50, previously extremely rare, are on the increase. “They have almost doubled,” says Solange Peters, head of medical oncology at the Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV) in western Switzerland. In her view, this is “an alarming sign”.

“In the over-65s, the number of cases is increasing, but this is due to the ageing of the population,” she told 24 heures newspaper on Thursday. ...

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 11 months ago (2 children)

If detection is getting better, with emphasis on picking it up early, then it stands to reason that more younger people will be found to have cancer.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Oof, I don't know enough about the field of oncological research to confirm or deny that. I don't have the energy to research the same things they're discussing in the article, but I have a friend who studies pediatric lymphoma who mentioned that there are a lot more kids dying from it in recent times, so it would stand to reason that increase in deaths = increase in cases? I don't know if I'm drawing a false equivalency, though...

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I have a friend who studies pediatric lymphoma who mentioned that there are a lot more kids dying from it in recent times, so it would stand to reason that increase in deaths = increase in cases

No that is good info. Hard end points are key with meta-analysis of data from multiple sources, I think. Death is a hard end point.

It could still be about diagnosis, perhaps some deaths in young people now attributed with cancer would have been attributed to something else in the past. But a significant enough increase in deaths would suggest other factors.

I don't know, I just think it needs to be phrased alongside the classic "more study is needed" statement. It's something that warrants looking at more closely.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

Thank you for expanding on that topic! Although your reply was incredibly informative, more study is needed. Jk, I'm gonna go to sleep.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

what kind of statement is this? Do you think there's loads of people running round with cancer they never know about? Does cancer have no symptoms?