Appendix cancer has quadrupled in older millennials in the United States

Researchers are reporting a surprising increase in the Apendiceal Adenocarcinoma (AA), also known as appendix cancer – in people born after 1945.

The cases have tripled more than in the North -Americans born between 1980 and 1985 and were quadrupled in those born between 1985 and 1990, according to a new study by the Medical Center of the University of Vanderbilt.

“I think it is alarming,” the author of the Andreana study N. Holowatyj, an assistant professor of hematology and oncology, told post.

According to the National Cancer Institute, the appendix cancer is very rare.

In fact, the Holowatyj team identified only 4,858 20 -year -old people and were diagnosed with AA between 1975 and 2019.

The findings, published on Monday in The Annals of Internal Medicine, are part of a problematic trend.

AA is another type of cancer that seems to increase younger adults: to join the rows of colorectal cancers, breast, uterines, kidneys and pancreatic.

“I think the fact that we see birth cohort or generational effects through a large number of types of cancer is effectively alarming because it really emphasizes the need to understand what is based on this pattern so that we can actively reverse it,” said Holowatyj.

As with other cancers, health experts are not sure what the jump could cause in AA cases.

“I think it will be a constellation of factors that may promote the development of appendiceal cancer,” Said Holowatyj.

“One of the things we often think is, what has changed to birth cohorts over time?” She said.

Holowatyj noted “the use of antibiotics, both in childhood and in the food chain, the industrialization of the food industry over time, the patterns of life and the triple of obesity since the 1970’s, More and more sedentary behavior, possibly environmental exhibitions that have changed in different parts of the country and over time. “”

Whatever the cause, he hopes that this study will encourage the public to be “aware of this cancer, to know the signs and symptoms of appendix cancers and know that we see more cases diagnosed between generations.”

Many of these symptoms can mimic appendicitis:

• Abdominal pain, often at the bottom right
• Swelling, diarrhea or constipation
• To feel —Se full after small meals
• Unexplained weight loss
• Nausea and vomiting
• Too abdominal or swelling

Holowatyj hopes that people with symptoms “see a healthcare professional in a timely manner because it is really critical to detect appendix cancer early”.

There is no standardized screening evidence for appendix cancers: most cases are diagnosed incidentally after someone eliminates their appendix.

“I think it is important to understand that appendix cancer is diagnosed at younger ages more often than we see in other cancers,” he said, noting that one in three patients diagnosed with appendix cancer is under 50, compared to one in eight for colon cancer.