International Trends in the Incidence of Cancer Among Adolescents and Young Adults

2020/01/15 by Sumit Gupta, Andrew Harper, Yibing Ruan +8 · 173 citations
Medicine · #Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia research #Cancer #Cancer registry #Cervical cancer #Childhood Cancer Survivors' Quality of Life #Confidence interval #Demography #Environmental health #Epidemiology #Gerontology #Incidence (geometry) #Internal medicine #Medicine #Multiple and Secondary Primary Cancers #Obesity #Population #Thyroid cancer #Young adult

paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/jnci/djaa007

published in JNCI Journal of the National Cancer Institute 112(11), 1105-1117 (Oxford University Press)

openalex publication_date 2020/01/15 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Although adolescent and young adult (AYA) cancers represent a unique spectrum of malignancies, epidemiological studies of cancer incidence often group AYAs together with younger or older populations, obscuring patterns specific to this population. METHODS: We examined AYA cancer incidence trends in 41 countries over a 15-year period using the CI5plus database. Truncated age-standardized incidence rates were calculated and the annual percentage change was assessed, with statistical significance corresponding to a 95% confidence interval that does not include zero. RESULTS: From 1998 to 2012, the 41 included countries contributed a total of 1 846 588 cancer cases and 3.1 billion person-years among AYAs. Although statistically significant increases in the overall cancer burden were observed in 23 countries, the magnitude varied considerably, with the greatest increase in incidence observed in South Korea (annual percentage change2002-2012 = 8.5%, 95% confidence interval = 7.6% to 9.4%) due to thyroid cancer. Notable trends included sharp increases in the incidence of obesity-related malignancies among AYAs; indeed, statistically significant increases were observed among AYAs for 10 of 11 and 9 of 11 obesity-related cancer sites in the US and UK, respectively, with at least five obesity-related cancers statistically significantly increasing in Canada, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and the Netherlands. Other striking trends were noted for thyroid and testicular cancer, with statistically significantly increasing rates observed in 33 and 22 countries, respectively, whereas statistically significant declines in incidence were observed for smoking-related cancers, cervical cancer, and Kaposi sarcoma in many countries. CONCLUSIONS: Our results highlight the future health-care needs related to treatment as well as the urgency for public health initiatives that can mitigate the increasing burden of cancer in AYAs.

Citations

• Global patterns and trends in colorectal cancer incidence and mortality
• Global cancer statistics 2018: GLOBOCAN estimates of incidence and mortality worldwide for 36 cancers in 185 countries

Cited by

• Global cancer mortality among children, adolescents, and young adults from 77 countries, 1990–2021: a global time-series analysis and modelling study
• Incidencia y Mortalidad por Cáncer en Adultos Jóvenes en Dos Regiones del Estado de São Paulo
• Immune Cell Confrontation in the Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma Microenvironment. [europepmc]
• Incidence, Survival, and Mortality Trends of Cancers Diagnosed in Adolescents and Young Adults (15-39 Years): A Population-Based Study in The Netherlands 1990-2016. [europepmc]
• Comprehensive genomic profile of Chinese lung cancer patients and mutation characteristics of individuals resistant to icotinib/gefitinib. [europepmc]
• Rising incidence of early-onset colorectal cancer - a call to action. [europepmc]
• Obesity, Type 2 Diabetes, and Cancer Risk. [europepmc]
• Tumor Long Interspersed Nucleotide Element-1 (LINE-1) Hypomethylation in Relation to Age of Colorectal Cancer Diagnosis and Prognosis. [europepmc]
• A novel ferroptosis-related gene signature for predicting outcomes in cervical cancer. [europepmc]
• The global, regional, and national burden of cancer among adolescents and young adults in 204 countries and territories, 1990-2019: a population-based study. [europepmc]
• An immune-related prognostic signature for thyroid carcinoma to predict survival and response to immune checkpoint inhibitors. [europepmc]
• A global assessment of recent trends in gastrointestinal cancer and lifestyle-associated risk factors. [europepmc]
• Adolescent and Young Adult (AYA) Cancer Survivorship Practices: An Overview. [europepmc]
• The Burden of Late Effects and Related Risk Factors in Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Survivors: A Scoping Review. [europepmc]
• Genomic and molecular features distinguish young adult cancer from later-onset cancer. [europepmc]
• The global burden of adolescent and young adult cancer in 2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019. [europepmc]
• Associations between diagnostic time intervals and health-related quality of life, clinical anxiety and depression in adolescents and young adults with cancer: cross-sectional analysis of the BRIGHTLIGHT cohort. [europepmc]
• Age-Related Cancer-Associated Microbiota Potentially Promotes Oral Squamous Cell Cancer Tumorigenesis by Distinct Mechanisms. [europepmc]
• Cancer as microenvironmental, systemic and environmental diseases: opportunity for transdisciplinary microbiomics science. [europepmc]
• Is early-onset cancer an emerging global epidemic? Current evidence and future implications. [europepmc]
• Ultra-Processed Food Consumption Associated with Incident Hypertension among Chinese Adults-Results from China Health and Nutrition Survey 1997-2015. [europepmc]
• Sulfur Metabolism of the Gut Microbiome and Colorectal Cancer: The Threat to the Younger Generation. [europepmc]
• Sp1 promotes tumour progression by remodelling the mitochondrial network in cervical cancer. [europepmc]
• Global, regional, and national burdens of early onset pancreatic cancer in adolescents and adults aged 15-49 years from 1990 to 2019 based on the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019: a cross-sectional study. [europepmc]
• Historical Perspective and Current Trends in Anticancer Drug Development. [europepmc]
• Trend analysis of hematological tumors in adolescents and young adults from 1990 to 2019 and predictive trends from 2020 to 2044: A Global Burden of Disease study. [europepmc]
• Global cancer statistics for adolescents and young adults: population based study. [europepmc]

Related

• Cancer statistics for adolescents and young adults, 2020
• Trends in Childhood and Adolescent Cancer Incidence Rates in the United States between 2001 and 2022
• Global cancer statistics, 2012
• Trends in Cancer Incidence and Mortality Rates in Early-Onset and Older-Onset Age Groups in the United States, 2010–2019
• Recent Changes in the Incidence of Thyroid Cancer in Korea between 2005 and 2018: Analysis of Korean National Data