Cancer<\/a>\u00a0is becoming increasingly common among young people, with cases slowly and steadily rising every year for the past decade.\u00a0<\/p>\n Colorectal cancer is now the leading cause of cancer death in people under 50<\/a>\u00a0in the US, with cases increasing from 8.6 cases per 100,000 people in 1999 to 13 cases per 100,000 people in 2018.<\/p>\n A\u00a0recent report from the American Cancer Society<\/a> (ACS) found incidence among adults under 50 – which is considered early-onset – has gone up by about three percent yearly. In fact, 45 percent of CRC diagnoses are in people under 65 years old, according to ACS.<\/p>\n The rate of lung cancer diagnoses in young people has also gradually increased over the past two decades, particularly in those who have never smoked, which experts have blamed on environmental pollutants like radon gas.<\/p>\n And new diagnoses of breast cancer that have spread to other parts of the body are increasing most rapidly\u00a0among young women. From 2004 to 2021, cases in patients ages 20 to 39 rose nearly three percent, a rate more than double the increase seen in women age 75 and older.\u00a0<\/p>\n Young people are often diagnosed at later stages, which studies suggest could be due to insurance woes that compromise their chances of survival.\u00a0<\/p>\n Health experts from the University of Texas at Arlington have examined the social\u00a0and systemic factors that shape who survives a cancer diagnosis in an analysis<\/a>\u00a0that included nearly 470,000 Americans between the ages of 15 and 39 who had been diagnosed with cancer, finding insurance status is one of the clearest and most consequential factors.<\/p>\n Mariana Tata (pictured above) was just 26 years old when she was diagnosed with Stage 4 colorectal cancer that had spread to her ovaries and abdominal wall. She had bloating and rectal bleeding prior to her diagnosis<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"Mariana](\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2026\/04\/06\/16\/106989485-15709729-Mariana_Tata_pictured_above_was_just_26_years_old_when_she_was_d-a-89_1775490869169.jpg\")
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