Obesity

Obesity-Related Cancers Rising in Younger People

The incidence of obesity-associated cancers (OACs) appears to have shifted toward younger people from 2000 to 2016, according to new findings published in JAMA Network Open.1

Obesity, which has a known association with cancer risk, has risen considerably in recent years in the United States. CDC data indicate that approximately 93.3 million (39.8%) US adults and 13.7 million (18.5%) US children and adolescents had obesity in 2015 and 2016.2,3

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“The findings have important public health implications and suggest that interventions to reduce obesity and to implement individualized screening programs are needed,” wrote the authors of the present study.

Siran M. Koroukian, PhD, from the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio, and colleagues arrived at their conclusion after performing a cross-sectional study of Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) data on 2,665,574 cases of incident OACs and 3,448,126 cases of incident non-OACs. Cases evaluated in the study had been diagnosed between January 1, 2000, and December 31, 2016.

The main outcome of the study was defined as changes in the age distribution of incident cases of OACs and non-OACs and across race/ethnicity- and sex-specific strata over time.

Findings from the study indicated that, from 2000 to 2016:1

  • 70.3% of incident OACs and 32.0% of incident non-OACs had occurred in women.
  • The percentage of incident OACs and non-OACs had increased among individuals aged 50 to 64 years, ranging from a 25.3% increase in non-Hispanic white women to a 197.8% increase in Hispanic men.
  • Among individuals aged 20 to 49 years, the change in the number of OACs ranged from a decrease of 5.9% in non-Hispanic white women to an increase of 94.6% in Hispanic women.
  • OACS had increased among individuals aged 65 years or older, ranging from a 2.5% increase in non-Hispanic white women to a 102.0% increase in Hispanic women.
  • Individuals aged 50 to 64 years had experienced a greater annual increase in the odds for OACs compared with non-OACs, whereas these odds had decreased for individuals aged 65 years or older.
  • The OAC to non-OAC ratio of odds ratios (ORs) ranged from 1.005 in non-Hispanic black men to 1.013 in non-Hispanic white men aged 50 to 64 years, translating to a 0.5% higher annual increase for OACs than for non-OACs in non-Hispanic black men and a 1.3% higher annual increase for OACs than for non-OACs in non-Hispanic white men.
  • The OAC to non-OAC ratio of ORs ranged from 1.002 in Hispanic women to 1.005 in non-Hispanic black women aged 50 to 64 years.
  • The OAC vs non-OAC ratio of ORs had been consistently less than 1.000 among individuals aged 65 years or older, regardless of race/ethnicity. The researchers noted that the incidence of non-OACs had demonstrated either a smaller decrease or an increase over time compared with OACs, which had decreased over time in this age group.
  • Cancers that had increased the most included liver and thyroid cancers, regardless of sex and race/ethnicity; gallbladder and other biliary cancers in non-Hispanic black men and women and Hispanic men; and uterine cancer in Hispanic women aged 50 to 64 years.


—Christina Vogt

References:

  1. Korkoukian SM, Dong W, Berger NA. Changes in age distribution of obesity-associated cancers. JAMA Netw Open. 2019;2(8):e19926. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.9261.
  2. Adult obesity facts. Overweight & obesity. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html. Updated August 13, 2018. Accessed August 15, 2019.
  3. Childhood obesity facts. Overweight & obesity. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/childhood.html. Updated June 24, 2019. Accessed August 15, 2019.