Abstract
Obesity is a risk factor for many cancers, and obesity-related cancer incidence in the United States (U.S.) has been rising over the years. In the recent decades, the younger population of the United States has experienced an increase in obesity.
These increases have been the highest among ethnic minorities, and in the Southeast, while they have been less evident in the Northeast. The impact of rising rates of obesity among younger individuals on younger onset cancer incidence is less well understood. We estimated 15-year trends in incidence for 11 obesity-related cancers among adults under the age of 50 stratified by race/ethnicity and geographic region of the United States. Age adjusted incidence rates for cancers of the female breast, colorectal, endometrial, esophageal, hepatocellular carcinoma, kidney, multiple myeloma, non-cardia gastric, ovarian, pancreatic, and thyroid cancers were calculated from 2001-2016 using data obtained from Surveillance, epidemiology, and End Results (SEER-18). Data were stratified by age +/- 50 years old, four racial/ethnic groups: non-Hispanic white (NHW), non-Hispanic black (NHB), Asian American or Pacific Islander (AAPI), and Hispanic, and four geographical regions: West, Midwest, Northeast, and Southeast, and by sex. We used SEER*Stat and JoinPoint software for analysis. We observed statistically significant increasing 15-year trends among younger adults for colorectal cancer in NHWs, NHBs, and Hispanics, kidney cancer in all race groups, multiple myeloma among NHBs, non-cardia gastric cancer in Hispanic males and thyroid cancer in NHW and AAPI males. Stratification by geography revealed increasing trends of younger onset female breast cancer in the Midwest and that increasing trends for younger onset myeloma, non-cardia gastric, and thyroid cancers are steepest in the Northeastern U.S. and steepest for younger onset colorectal cancer in the Southeast U.S. We observed increasing trends in younger onset cancers of the kidney, colorectal, multiple myeloma, non-cardia gastric, thyroid, and female breast. Preventing obesity in ways such as education, better food produce availability and programs, and lower healthcare costs may reduce the impact of these cancers. Reduced age for screening for colorectal cancer may improve opportunity for earlier detection and improved prognoses in younger adults.
Citation Format: Talia Begi, Osika Tripathi, Paris Offor, Caroline A. Thompson. National trends in younger onset obesity-related cancer incidence [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Virtual Conference: Thirteenth AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2020 Oct 2-4. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2020;29(12 Suppl):Abstract nr PO-175.