00:00In this week's Time Magazine, I wrote about how researchers have found that young people
00:05from around the world are getting many different types of cancer at alarming rates, and the
00:10diagnoses of celebrities and public figures are bringing mass attention to the issue.
00:15Scientists are now trying to answer a big question.
00:18Why is cancer, which is traditionally seen as a disease of old age, increasingly striking
00:23people in the primes of their lives?
00:25Cancers affecting digestive organs, including the colon, rectum, pancreas, and stomach,
00:31are surging particularly dramatically within this age group.
00:34The numbers are scary, but I spoke with researchers who are figuring out why this is happening.
00:39There's at least one comforting explanation—more accurate imaging, which leads to more cancers
00:45detected.
00:46And some screening recommendations have recently been modified to include younger adults.
00:51Colonoscopies, for example, have recently been recommended starting at age 45 in the
00:55U.S., down from age 50 previously.
00:58If more younger adults get screened, more younger adults get diagnosed.
01:02And many researchers are working to understand other reasons for the uptick.
01:06Shuji Ogino, a pathologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, is trying to
01:11solve the puzzle using a technique that he pioneered.
01:15Ogino and his team put cancer tissue under a powerful microscope and look at the different
01:19types of cells in the tumor.
01:21Then, they use AI to search reams of scientific literature for environmental exposures, lifestyle
01:27habits, or health conditions linked to those particular cellular traits.
01:31Treatments are evolving to deal with younger patients as well, since they have unique needs.
01:37One ongoing experimental trial at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York
01:41City uses medication to coax a patient's immune system into recognizing and destroying
01:47cancerous cells.
01:48Ideally sparing them from surgery and therapies that leave patients with lifelong physical
01:53side effects.
01:55In some small, preliminary studies, it has shown a 100% success rate.
01:59It's important to remember that cancer is still overwhelmingly an older person's
02:04disease.
02:05As of 2025, 88% of people in the U.S. diagnosed with cancer were 50 or older, and 59% or 65
02:12or older, according to data from the American Cancer Society.
02:16But the demographics are shifting.
02:18The only age group in the U.S. for which cancer risk is increasing right now is people under
02:2350.
02:24Medical guidance on reducing your risk of developing cancer remains the same.
02:29Eat right, exercise, wear sunscreen, don't smoke, and get the recommended screenings
02:34regularly.
