While we tend to think of cancer as a disease that mainly affects older people, young people today are getting cancer at increasingly higher rates.
Colorectal cancer has now become the leading killer of people under the age of 50. More than ten different types of cancer are on the rise among 20-to-50-year-olds, including breast cancer, kidney cancer and uterine cancer.
Screening for colorectal cancer should now begin at age 45 for those at average risk, said Dr. Shanti Sivendran, an oncologist and hematologist at Penn Medicine.
“We need to continue to push that message that cancer is happening in younger people,” Sivendran, who is also a senior vice president at the American Cancer Society, told host William Brangham. “Get your mammogram, get your cervical cancer screening, think about HPV vaccination, get your colon cancer screening, whether that's a stool-based test or that's a colonoscopy. And pay attention to your body.”
Horizons from PBS News, dives into the science, health, technology and environmental issues making headlines each week. Visit the PBS News website to watch this week's episode.