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The rise of early-onset cancer: The medical mystery that needs more attention
Rising cancer rates in young adults should be the focus of further US federal studies rather than chasing after links between vaccines and autism.
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Rising cancer diagnoses among younger adults are not attributable solely to increased or earlier screening.
PHOTO: UNSPLASH
Daniela Lamas
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When I started working in the intensive care unit of a cancer hospital, I didn’t know what to make of the horror stories of patients in their 30s and 40s. There was a young father with colon cancer. A recent college graduate with an aggressive malignancy that had destroyed her jaw and airway. An aspiring journalist with breast cancer that had spread to her lungs.
Late at night, I’d suddenly feel suspicious of every random stomach pain or twinge in my shoulder. I told myself that those patients were not the norm. I was in my 30s, and the overwhelming likelihood was that I was safe.
