Xangsane
^ This is a looksmatched couple
- Joined
- Jun 11, 2021
- Posts
- 150,048
- Reputation
- 127,035
Early-onset cancer: why are more young adults being diagnosed? - Cancer Research UK - Cancer News
Early-onset cancer rates in adults under 50 have been rising since the 1990s. We look into why it's happening and how to stop it.
news.cancerresearchuk.org
Japan: an early-onset cancer outlier
Ogino and Ugai live and work in the US, but they were born in Japan. Both of those countries are very wealthy, but Japan isn’t seeing the same rise in early-onset cancer cases related to the digestive system, especially in men.
It’s another clue. Japan is one of the only high-income countries where most people don’t usually eat what’s known as a western-style diet, which is heavy on red meat and high-fat, high-sugar processed food. Instead, Japanese people eat more fish, vegetables and legumes (like beans and lentils).
In Japan, people rely on fish and plants for more of their protein.
Most children in Japan also walk or ride bikes to school, which helps them get more exercise than children in other countries, who typically travel door to door in buses and cars.
South Korea is ethnically and economically similar to Japan, but South Korean lifestyles are closer to US and western European ones. Early-onset cancers are rising sharply in South Korea, too.
Ogino thinks studying the differences between exposures in Japan and other rich countries could help us find out more about how to prevent certain early-onset cancers.