Research suggests cancer cases among young people on the rise due to ultra-processed foods and obesity

New study claims under-50s in the UK are now more at risk of developing cancer than ever before, with an unhealthy diet and poor gut health to blame.

Latest data has revealed that the number of younger people being diagnosed with cancer has increased by a quarter in 20 years. Approximately 35,000 younger people are diagnosed with cancer every year, with types including stomach, breast and bowel cancer.

According to the academics, cancer cases among younger people are rising because they are eating too much ultra-processed food. The study highlighted bowel cancer is on the rise due to changes in the gut microbiome limiting the body's ability to deal with pre-cancerous cells.

Professor Charles Swanton, Cancer Research UK's chief clinician, said: “Over recent decades, there has been a clear increase in cancer incidence rates in young adults in the UK. We don't have a good answer as to why this is happening.”

Recent data from Cancer Research UK has shown that the number of cancer cases among younger adults have gone from 132.9 per 100,000 people in 1995 to 164.6 in 2019.

Scientists from Ohio State University have discovered that younger adults with cancer were living with cells that looked 15 years older than their real age.

Western diets can cause 'accelerated ageing' in the colon because they affect the balance of bacteria and inflammation in the gut. Inflammation in the gut is normally increased by a bacteria called fusobacterium, the research has revealed.

Professor Swanton added: “There are associations emerging that distinct microbial species may be associated with early onset cancer risk. What we are seeing in some studies is some tumours from patients with early onset colorectal cancer harbour mutations that might be initiated by these microbial species.”

He added: “Suggesting that potentially some of these microbes might initiate mutations in DNA. This is not dissimilar from the way that tobacco smoke induces mutations in in lung lining cells.”

Dr Cathy Eng, a bowel cancer doctor at Vanderbilt University Medical Centre in Nashville, said: “The rise of the disease among under-50s was being seen globally and that otherwise healthy patients are increasingly presenting with advanced bowel cancer in their 20s, 30s and early 40s. They are not necessarily obese or unhealthy looking and you would have no idea they had cancer.”

She added: “Research has correlated it with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes and sedentary lifestyles, as well as links to tobacco and alcohol. It’s not necessarily what you eat, there is also interesting research regarding antibiotic use and what you have been taking into your body since childhood.”