Gen X and millennials three times more likely to be diagnosed with appendix cancer than their parents, study finds
Cases of appendix cancer appear to be rising among Gen X and millennials, according to a new study that found those age groups are three times more likely to face a diagnosis than their parents.
The research, published in Annals of Internal Medicine earlier this month, found that the diagnosis of the rare disease is sharply rising among people in those generations.
Cancer of the appendix, the small pouch-like organ attached to the large intestine that supports the immune system, affects 1 or 2 people for every million people in the U.S., according to the research.
Compared to those born between 1941 to 1949, incidence rates of appendix cancer have more than tripled among people born between 1976 and 1984 and more than quadrupled among people born between 1981 and 1989, according to the new report.
'It's alarming overall,' Dr. Andreana Holowatyj, the lead study author and an assistant professor of hematology and oncology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center told CNN.
'We're seeing some of these generational effects for cancers of the colon, the rectum, the stomach, and so that's one of the reasons why we were curious to explore this in rare appendix cancers. But nonetheless, the rates and trends which we observed were alarming and worrisome,' she said.
Researchers conducting the study looked at data from 4,858 people in the U.S. who were 20 or older and had been diagnosed with appendix cancer between 1975 and 2019.
The data was separated into five-year age groups and showed rising rates of appendix cancer by group, especially among those born after 1945.
The study did not clarify why cases of appendix cancer are on the rise, though researchers said it is 'unlikely' to b down to advances in screening and diagnostic methods. Instead, they speculate it may be tied to environmental exposures, such as obesity.
Those exposures may increase the risk for generations now entering mid-adulthood, the researchers wrote, noting similar trends 'have also been reported for colon, rectal, and gastric cancer.'
'The fact that we're seeing these trends parallel across other cancers of the gastrointestinal tract does tell us, or suggest, that there may be both shared and distinct risk factors that can contribute to cancer development across younger generations in the gastrointestinal tract,' Holowatyj said.
There is currently no screening recommendations for appendix cancer, but symptoms of the disease are similar to appendicitis and include abdominal or pelvic pain, bloating, nausea and vomiting.
Appendix cancer may be treated with surgery, in which the appendix is removed. If the cancer has spread, patients are often given chemotherapy.
'This is a disease where, if not caught before the appendix ruptures, tumor cells disperse throughout the abdominal cavity often,' Holowatyj said. 'That's why up to 1 in every 2 patients are diagnosed with metastatic disease' or cancer that has spread.
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