Wednesday 1 June 2022 09:07 PM Rates of esophageal cancer among middle-aged Americans doubled over a seven ... trends now

Rates of esophageal cancer among middle aged Americans have rocketed in what one expert calls an 'alarming' finding.

An abstract published last month for the Digestive Disease Week 2022 conference in Bethesda, Maryland, shows that rates of esophageal cancer among Americans aged 45 to 64 nearly doubling during the seven year period from 2012 to 2017.

Researchers have not yet determined what is causing this jump, and because this study was performed in Florida, there is a risk that environmental factors could be tied to parts of the state.

The findings are alarming, though, and Dr Jaffer Ajani, a professor of gastrointestinal medical oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, believes it may be time to set guidelines for when people should receive screenings for the cancer.

Ajani told DailyMail.com that esophageal cancer is one of the more dangerous forms, and that people who find out they are sick once they are suffering symptoms are at a significantly increased risk of death.

He compares the cancer's severity to that of pancreas cancer, which is widely regarded as one of the more serious forms of the condition. 

The research, which was presented at the conference, one of the largest for gastrointestinal experts across the world, included data from around five million Floridians across the period.

Participants, all of which were adults, were split into three groups. Those 18 to 44 ere considered 'young', the 45 to 64 year olds were considered 'middle aged', and those over 65 were categorized as elderly.

The elderly group was most likely to develop the

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