Alarm over mystery cancer 'epidemic' striking under-50s like Kate Middleton as ... trends now
Scientists are scrambling to find the cause of a mystery cancer 'epidemic' which is striking under-50s.
Kate Middleton's shock diagnosis last week has shone a light on the startling trend, with top doctors claiming it is a worldwide problem.
Despite years of research, researchers are baffled as to what is behind the problem.
Increased awareness thanks to the likes of Dame Deborah James, who died from bowel cancer aged 40 in 2022, and improved diagnosis methods are thought to have played a role.
But, in the wake of the Princess of Wales' news, one surgeon claimed an yet-to-be discovered factor could be to blame.
Professor Andrew Beggs, a consultant colorectal surgeon and a senior clinical fellow at the University of Birmingham, said: 'There might be an unknown environmental factor that we haven’t discovered, despite extensive research.'
He added: 'Young onset cancer is by no means rare.
'I run a clinic for early-onset cancer in adults and we're seeing more and more people in their 40s with cancer.'
He added other factors that could also be contributing to the rise are better cancer detection methods, awareness of symptoms and better screening of genetic conditions that increase cancer risk, like the BRCA gene like Angelina Jolie has.
Maia Kennedy, 38, of Hackney, London, today told of her own cancer journey, which shared similarities with the 42-year-old Princess of Wales'.
Ms Kennedy began suffering from nausea in December 2023, which her GP initially put down to acid reflux.
The website developer was eventually called for an emergency test, where doctors found a tumour in her bowel during her colonoscopy.
At the time it was thought to be pre-cancerous.
Ms Kennedy, who lives with her partner of 10 years, was then told it was stage one bowel cancer after undergoing routine surgery to remove part of her bowel earlier this year.
The Princess of Wales herself underwent planned abdominal surgery in January. Doctors originally didn't think her condition was cancerous but tests later revealed the disease.
She started a course of preventative chemotherapy in Late February and has not named the type of cancer she had.
Another cancer survivor, Becki Buggs was 43 when she received the news she had pancreatic cancer.
She told MailOnline earlier this year that she was motivated to get tests after her husband commented she looked like 'a Minion', a skin change later revealed to be jaundice.
Men are also at risk.
Ricky Smith, of the Isle of Sheppey, Kent, learned last month that the cause of his agonizing headaches wasn't stress but a type of brain cancer.
The father-of-three has since been given 15 months to live. His inoperable tumour was only spotted by an eye test.
Celebrities have also been caught in the rising pattern of increasing cancer cases in the young.
Black Panther actor Chadwick Boseman was killed by colon cancer before the age of 50, medically known as 'early-onset'.
Others are currently being treated for the disease, such as actress Oliva Munn, who at 43 recently revealed she had breast cancer.
Sofia Vergara of Modern Family, Star Wars actor Ewan McGregor, and singer Kylie Minogue were all also diagnosed with cancer before turning 50.
UK data shows that while cancer rates have increased across all age groups, cases have increased far faster among the young.
According to Cancer Research UK (CRUK), the incidence rate among younger Brits (aged between 25-49) is now 162.4 cases per 100,000 people each year.
This is 22 per cent higher than the figure in the 90s.
And the increase cannot be dismissed as just being due to better cancer detection methods, experts argue.
For comparison, rates among the over 75s, who account for about half of all cancer cases in the UK, only increased by 9 per cent in
