07-07-2025
What is causing a huge spike in early onset cancers among Aussies? The data that everyone needs to see - as the country leads the world in one type of the disease
Australians in their 30s and 40s are being increasingly diagnosed with cancer, with at least 10 types of the disease rising at an alarming rate.
The trend, known as early onset cancer, is worrying experts who have pointed to childhood obesity, ultra-processed foods and microplastics as possible reasons for the frightening phenomenon.
Cancer Australia, the federal government's cancer agency, has released data on the staggering increases in cases between 2000 and 2024.
In Australians aged 30 to 39, the rate of prostate cancer has increased by 500 per cent, pancreatic cancer by 200 per cent, liver cancer by 150 per cent, uterine cancer by 138 per cent and kidney cancer by 85 per cent.
Professor Dorothy Keefe, the chief executive of Cancer Australia, has revealed approximately 10 types of cancer are now displaying unprecedented elevated rates in young adults.
The likelihood of an adult being diagnosed with cancers such as bowel, breast and lung, has traditionally increased with age, but the worrying trend that has emerged in the last two decades contradicts this.
Data from the United States shows Australia isn't alone with a dramatic rise in early onset cancers.
But Australia is alarmingly a world leader when it comes to bowel cancer rates.
Since 2000, bowel cancer cases among 30 to 30-year-olds have increased by 173 per cent and what's even more worrying is the fact diagnoses in this age group often occur at a later stage, when the cancer is harder to treat.
Chris Burton, 39, told the ABC's Four Corners that he was planning his wedding when he noticed he was bleeding after going to the toilet.
Six weeks later, it happened again and his GP referred him for a colonoscopy.
After returning from his honeymoon, he had the procedure and was diagnosed with bowel cancer.
'Similar to a lot of young people, cancer's not at the forefront of what you think might be wrong with you,' he said.
Mr Burton has understandably struggled following his diagnosis at a time that should have been a happy one.
He learned of his diagnosis when his wife about to give birth to their second child.
He said he often wonders if he could have done something to prevent the disease.
'That's the 3am thoughts that go through your head … have you done something to deserve it?'
The specific reasons for the marked increase have not been pinned down, but theories are emerging in the scientific community.
Many scientists believe environmental factors or the 'exposome' could partly be to blame for the increase in cancer cases in young adults.
Understanding the environment of today's 30 to 40-year-olds when they were children could be the key, particularly societal changes between the 1960s and 1990s.
Childhood obesity has increased in recent years, diets have become more reliant on ultra-processed foods, and antibiotics were more readily prescribed.
Increased rates in caesareans could be a factor, as this may have disrupted the transfer of microbiomes from mother to child.
This is something which could affect immune system development.
Harmful microplastics and their growing presence in everyday life could also be a huge concern.
Microplastics are small plastic particles, less than 5mm in diameter, which have been found in drinking water, food, and the atmosphere as they have become increasingly used in the modern world.
A University of Newcastle report commissioned by the World Wide Fund for Nature found that the average individual could be ingesting as much as five grams of microplastics every single week.
Mr Burton's wife Ali has since given birth to a baby girl, just three days after his latest surgery in June.
'It's a stormy dark period, but you know, it's possible to survive,' he added.
