For several years now, doctors have been warning about an alarming rise in colon cancer in young people, with much research suggesting that the trend is linked to the processed foods consumed by this generation. But now, experts are sounding the alarm on another rarer form of cancer that's steadily been increasing among millennials and Gen X. New research shows that for people born between 1985 and 1990, rates of appendix cancer have quadrupled.
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Appendix cancer has quadrupled in older millennials.
A new study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that rates of appendiceal adenocarcinoma (AA), or appendix cancer, have risen sharply among Generation X and Millennials.
According to Cleveland Clinic, most appendix cancers are appendiceal adenocarcinoma, a malignant form of cancer that starts in the glandular tissue of the appendix. In some cases, these can spread to the abdomen or cause colon cancer-like symptoms, including bloating, bowel habit changes such as increased diarrhea, nausea and vomiting, feel fuller quicker, and pain the abdomen or pelvis.
However, the health authority notes that any type of appendix cancer is extremely rare: "In the United States, appendix cancer affects approximately 1 to 2 people out of every 1 million each year. That’s significantly less than even 1% of the population."
But the new data suggests that these numbers are increasing.
To arrive at their findings, the researchers analyzed health data for nearly 5,000 people aged 20 or older who were diagnosed with a form of appendiceal adenocarcinoma. They divided the participants into groups based on five-year birth periods between 1975 and 2019, and estimated their rates of appendix cancer compared to a 1945 birth cohort.
"They found that age-specific AA rates increased by time period, and incidence rates of AA more than tripled among the 1980 birth cohort and quadrupled among the 1985 birth cohort, states a press release.
RELATED: 14 Cancer Types Are Increasing in Americans Under 50, Shocking New Research Finds.
Why are appendix cancers rising in young people?
The researchers state in the study's conclusion that the rise of appendix cancer in young people is "unexplained" and requires further investigation. However, they state, " Similar trends have been reported for other gastrointestinal cancers, suggestive of potential shared cause contributing to this increasing cancer burden across generations."
"We don’t know what the risk factors are for appendix cancer, and seeing whether there are generational effects could help us to continue to put the pieces together of this complex puzzle," lead study author Andreana Holowatyji, PhD, assistant professor of hematology and oncology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, told Time.
"The challenging thing now is to disentangle not only what these exposures are, but what molecular changes these exposures cause, and what the consequences of those changes are on our cells that may end up increasing the risk of carcinogenesis," she added.
Holowatyji stressed the importance of seeing your healthcare provider if you're experiencing any related symptoms—especially because roughly half of all appendix cancers are only caught once they've spread.
To this point, Deborah Doroshow, MD, PhD, an associate professor of medicine at the Tisch Cancer Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (who was not involved in the study), told NBC News that, unlike other cancers of the GI tract, appendix cancers are difficult to see on abdominal scans and aren't picked up by colonoscopies: "So it’s not easy to detect or screen for them."
Doroshow also noted that 95 percent of appendix cancers are only detected when a person seeks medical attention for appendicitis and has their appendix removed and examined by a pathologist.
