
Gastrointestinal cancer is the fastest-growing early-onset cancer in the US, research shows
Colorectal cancer was the most common early-onset gastrointestinal cancer in 2022, with over 20,800 diagnoses.
The rise in these cancers is largely attributed to modifiable risk factors, including obesity, poor diet, inactive lifestyles, smoking, and alcohol consumption.
The prognosis for early-onset gastrointestinal cancers is similar to or worse than later-onset cases, underscoring the need for improved prevention and early detection.
The American Cancer Society now recommends regular colorectal cancer screening from the age of 45, a reduction from the previous age of 50.
Dramatic rise in gastrointestinal cancers in people under 50
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Trump's push to change Coke: Is cane sugar better for you than corn syrup?
President Donald Trump — who reportedly drinks up to 12 cans of Diet Coke a day — said Wednesday that beverage giant Coca-Cola had agreed to use real cane sugar in its regular Coke. 'This will be a very good move by them — You'll see. It's just better!' Trump wrote in a Wednesday post on his Truth Social platform. The company said in a statement that it had appreciated the president's enthusiasm for the brand and that more details on 'new innovative offerings within [the] Coca‑Cola product range [would] be shared soon.' Coca-Cola is the best-selling carbonated soft drink in the U.S. Right now, Coke in the U.S. is made with high-fructose corn syrup to give it its sweet, fizzy taste. The sweetener is made from corn starch. Cane sugar is made from sugarcane, the tall, bamboo-like stalks known for their high sucrose content, and is used as the sweetener in Coke in most countries. But, is one healthier than the other? Here's what to know... Experts say cane sugar is not necessarily healthier The experts say it likely won't matter which sweetener is in Coke. Corn syrup has slightly more fructose than table sugar, or glucose. Fructose doesn't prompt the body to produce insulin, which triggers a hormone that helps us to feel full. 'Our bodies aren't going to know if that's cane sugar or high-fructose corn syrup. We just know that it is sugar and we need to break that down,' Caroline Susie, a registered dietitian nutritionist and a spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, told Health. Consuming an excessive amount of any refined sugar can lead to a higher risk of weight gain and associated chronic conditions, such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease. 'Both high-fructose corn syrup and cane sugar are about 50 percent fructose, 50 percent glucose, and have identical metabolic effects,' Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, a cardiologist and director of the Food is Medicine Institute at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, told NBC News. Soda is soda America has a sugar habit — and a penchant for ultra-processed foods — that it needs to kick, according to Mozaffarian. Soda has more than the daily recommended limit for added sugars for teens and children. Added sugar refers to sugars and syrups that are added to foods and beverages during processing and production. 'It's always better to cut down on soda, no matter what the form of sugar is,' Dr. Melanie Jay, a professor of medicine and population health at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine and director of the NYU Langone Comprehensive Program on Obesity Research, told NBC News. There's pushback Coke sold in the U.S. has been made with high fructose corn syrup since the mid-1980s. Corn was a cheaper option than cane sugar: the U.S. has a lot of corn farmers and the government has long supported the industry. Other countries, including Mexico and Australia, still use cane sugar. The company has imported glass bottles of Mexican Coke to the U.S. since 2005. Corn is the nation's number one crop, and the Corn Refiners Association President and CEO John Bode said in a statement that replacing high fructose corn syrup with cane sugar 'doesn't make sense.' 'President Trump stands for American manufacturing jobs, American farmers, and reducing the trade deficit,' he said. 'Replacing high fructose corn syrup with cane sugar would cost thousands of American food manufacturing jobs, depress farm income, and boost imports of foreign sugar, all with no nutritional benefit.' He told The Washington Post that it would be more economical to introduce a product with cane sugar than to abandon the cheap and popular high-fructose corn syrup.


The Sun
an hour ago
- The Sun
I lost nearly a stone on a week-long slimming holiday in the UK WITHOUT fat jabs
IN the run up to a holiday, most of us look forward to the all-inclusive buffets and perhaps expect to gain a few pounds. I used to love the kind of break where I'd fly somewhere sunny and sit by the pool or on the beach, sipping cocktails and enjoying the hotel's barbecue nights. 8 8 8 At 5ft 1in and 12st 9lb, I sometimes felt self-conscious in my bikini, but none of the diets I'd tried, from Slimming World to a high-protein Atkins diet, had worked. When I inevitably quit, I'd find myself gaining even more weight than before. Trendy weight-loss jabs like Ozempic and Mounjaro are all the rage now, but I didn't know anything about them. I'm sure would have given the fat jab a go eventually, as I was frustrated with my inability to lose weight. I was desperate. But I knew when I stopped taking them, I would have gone back to my old habits. I was rushed off my feet and felt constantly exhausted and miserable. Believe it or not, it was a holiday that helped me to change my lifestyle for good. During a trip to Canada, a friend took a photo of me at Niagara Falls. Usually, I'd only take photos of my face so I could hide my lumps and bumps. But this snap was a wake-up call. I hated the way I looked. I was only 28 – what had happened to me? I tried the new Gladiators event at Butlin's with some of the TV stars… and my kids were obsessed 'Fat camp retreat' Back then, my routine was to come home from work and watch TV all evening. One of the shows featured a 'fat camp' retreat where overweight guests can go enlist the help of fitness experts to shed lbs. I knew it was exactly what I needed, so I did some research and came across GI Jane Bootcamp, a retreat that helps women to get fit and lose weight, military style. One week cost £900 for food, accommodation and the boot camp. I was determined to sign up, so I cut back on treats for a while to save up for it. The camp was held at Scuttington Manor in Sittingbourne, Kent. When I arrived, I was petrified. I'd never really exercised before – I didn't even own workout clothes. But the welcome meeting, where I met GI Jane's trainers and the lovely group of women I'd be working with, put me at ease. We were all there for our own reasons: some, like me, wanted to lose weight, some needed head space, while others wanted a bit of a confidence boost. 8 8 One lady said it wasn't her first retreat, and that she keeps returning because 'it's good for the soul,' which I found really inspiring. From the very first day, we were tested to our limits. We'd get up at 7am – which was called 'falling in,' military style – and go on a hike of four or five miles before breakfast, which was usually home-made muesli and fresh fruit. Then, we'd have four exercise sessions across the rest of the day between healthy meals – anything from obstacle courses, boxing and intervals, to HIIT sessions, kettlebells and games. The morning after my first day, my legs were like jelly. But the trainers knew how to build us back up slowly each morning. The motto of GI Jane is 'You're only as fast as your slowest man,' and we were encouraged to support each other every step of the way. We bonded over every session, laughing and joking our way through the pain. I'd never run in my life before, so I struggled at first. I was thrilled when I realised I was gradually running further each day without stopping. On my last day I managed a full mile while carrying weights, which felt like such an achievement. At the end-of-week weigh-in, I discovered I'd lost 9 lbs in seven days, which I was thrilled about. On jabs like Mounjaro, the average weight loss is around 2lbs a week and you are not getting the added benefit of being fitter and healthier. 8 8 8 More importantly, I'd got a new lease of life and learned what it took to take care of my body. Back home, I took everything I learned at the camp on board. I couldn't afford a gym membership, so I bought my own kettlebell, and would run around my local village, Beverley in East Yorkshire, to exercise. As well as using all the tools I'd learned, I received fantastic support from the camp WhatsApp group too. Some of the trainers were in the chat, and were happy to offer advice and share recipes. How the weight stayed off and I ended up signing up to another camp - this time in Thailand. Nine months later, I was given the chance to attend another GI Jane Bootcamp, this time in Thailand. By then, I'd already shrunk down to 8st 11lbs at home, with my own drive and willpower. I signed up to go and by the end of a week in beautiful Koh Samui, I'd reached my target weight of 8st 7lbs. As well as the camp, you get to travel the world with like-minded people too. I'd shed over four stone overall, and was now a trim size 8. It was an incredible moment. Since that first year, I've attended lots more GI Jane Bootcamps, including a week in Greece last year. I've made friends from all over the world, and there's always a friendly face there. My confidence has sky-rocketed, too. Aside from the boot camps, it's fair to say all my holidays look quite different now. I still treat myself, but I'm also very active, which would have sounded like torture before! It's amazing to think how a one-week holiday changed my life so dramatically. I'm sure that if I'd tried so-called 'fat jabs' the weight would have piled back on when I stopped taking them, the same as with every other diet I've tried. But although some might see what I've done as losing weight the 'hard way,' I see it as life-changing. I'd urge anyone thinking about using expensive weight-loss medication to consider trying a boot camp first. You might be surprised.


Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE I was training for my fourth marathon at 39... hit then diagnosed with a deadly cancer exploding among young people
Lindsay Barad felt like she was in the best shape of her life. The 39-year-old New Yorker had just run her fourth 26.2-mile marathon, and was avoiding alcohol and even eating clean. She felt unstoppable. But just a month after the race in 2021, she was hit with a devastating diagnosis of stage four appendiceal cancer and told she had hundreds of tumors scattered over her insides. 'I had never even heard of this cancer,' Barad told in an exclusive sit-down interview. 'I didn't know it was possible. I was really, really shocked. I had no other symptoms; I just thought this was some kind of endometriosis, something like that.' Appendiceal cancer, or appendix cancer, is now the fastest-rising cancer among under-50s, with young adults today being up to seven times more likely to develop the disease as in the 1940s. Barad is among the latest young adults to be diagnosed with the disease and, like many others, said she has no idea why she developed it, despite her healthy lifestyle. She also has no idea when it started. She had heavy periods, menstrual cramps and bloating for as long as she could remember, which can be symptoms of appendicceal cancer, but had always played them down as normal. VID HERE PLEASE PUT LIVE: 3477873 Doctors had dismissed them too, saying they were 'just something women go through' and putting her on birth control and over-the-counter painkillers to reduce her symptoms. But in late 2021, after she changed gynecologist, Barad was recommended for an ultrasound on the pretence of getting an IUD, or small T-shaped device that is inserted into the uterus to prevent pregnancy. The scan revealed a grapefruit-sized cyst on her right ovary, despite the fact that ovaries are only about three to five centimeters long. This was also very large for Barad, who is just 5ft 1in tall. She was rushed into surgery, but during the procedure doctors noted a strange mucus in her abdominal cavity and that her appendix was swollen. They removed her appendix and sent it for testing, along with her cyst, right ovary and right fallopian tube. A few weeks later, in December 2021, she was called back into her doctor's office to be given the diagnosis. Barad said: 'It's hard to figure out when was that quote-unquote normal [menstrual cramps] versus when did I have appendix cancer, and that was what was making the symptoms. 'What was a red flag symptom was close to my diagnosis I had to urinate a lot, and I would notice every time I would drink something I would have to use the bathroom. I always felt the need to pee. 'And it turned out that was because I had a huge ovarian cyst and it was taking up space where my bladder is and that was me needing to urinate.' Appendiceal cancer has no clear symptoms, especially in its early stages, meaning doctors often struggle to diagnose the disease. It is rare, with about 3,000 cases every year, and normally diagnosed in people around 50 and 55 years old. But as cases have risen among younger adults, researchers have suggested that shifts in the microbiome caused by the western diet could be raising the risk of developing the cancer. This is also one of the leading theories linked to a surge in colon cancer in young people. There are several types of the cancer, but Barad was diagnosed with low-grade appendiceal mucinous neoplasm (LAMN), a rare and slow-growing form where cells in the appendix overproduce mucin — a jelly-like substance — that can flood the abdominal cavity and push other cells into it. This disruption in the body's internal cavity can cause a large cyst to develop on an ovary, like in Barad's case, or on another organ of the body. It isn't clear how often this form of the disease affects patients, but some studies on only a small number of patients have suggested it is around 40 percent of all cases. To treat her cancer, Barad was brought in for a major 12-hour surgery in March 2022 to try to clear the disease from her body. For the procedure, surgeons initially made an incision from her chest to her pelvis and opened up her body, before trying to remove as much of mucin as possible that was coating each organ. They removed part of her liver, omentum - the thin tissue surrounding the stomach - and part of her diaphragm during the surgery because these were covered in mucin. Doctors also said they might have to remove her uterus, leaving Barad unable to start a family, but managed to save the organ. Then, doctors pumped her abdominal cavity full of chemotherapy drugs heated to 106F (41C), sewed her up and rotated her for about 90 minutes. She was rotated to spread the chemotherapy drugs in her abdomen to treat any remaining cancer cells. The drugs were then extracted, and Barad said she went through months of a 'miserable' recovery where she was so unwell she was barely able to leave the apartment. But the surgery was a success, and the cancer has not been detected in Barad since. She now returns every year to the hospital to check for recurrence. Appendix cancer is slow-growing, however, with Barad saying that she will never be considered 'cured,' just 'in remission' because of the risk more cancerous cells could appear. She said: 'It's so slow moving, it could be slowly growing over the next couple of years, so it's uncertain. 'But every year now I get scans and blood work done and I feel like I am just in really good hands with all of this.' Survival rates for appendix cancer vary widely depending on the type and how advanced the cancer is, with between 67 and 97 percent of patients living for longer than five years after their diagnosis. For LAMN, about 64 percent of patients survive for longer than five years according to studies. Amid her recovery, Barad said she is now trying to live an intentional life and is thankful for the people around her and aiming to raise awareness about the disease. She lives in her apartment with her dog Charlie, a rescued Maltese poodle mix, and keeps active with long hikes. She also had her eggs frozen at age 35 in case she wanted to start a family but now says she doesn't think she wants to put her body through the trial of pregnancy. Barad is thankful that her cancer was slow growing but fears the outcome if it had not been detected earlier. She was helped through her journey by PMP Pals and the Abdominal Cancers Alliance, which aim to help patients with the disease.