Unfortunately, it is becoming increasingly common for people in their 20s and 30s to receive a cancer diagnosis. While the majority of research continues to focus on genetic testing, cancer vaccines, and targeted therapies, we have made little headway in reversing cancer trends. Today, 1 in 2 men and 1 in 3 women are expected to face cancer in their lifetime.
The concerning rise cannot be explained by genetics alone. In a TIME article published last month, “The Race to Explain Why More Young Adults Are Getting Cancer” journalist Jamie Ducharme explores the unsettling rise in cancer diagnoses among people under 50.
The number of early onset cancer cases is rising by 1% to 2% annually, according to the American Cancer Society.
An analysis of global health data published in the journal BMJ Oncology predicts a 30% jump in early onset cancers between 2019 and 2030.
The four cancers posing the largest risk to younger adults are:
- breast
- tracheal/bronchus/lung
- stomach
- colorectal cancer
While breast cancer is the most common type of cancer, prostate and nasopharyngeal cancers have seen the most dramatic increase.
In the U.S., the rate of colorectal cancer among people aged 15 to 39 has increased by 80% since the year 2000. While the total number of cases in this age group is still relatively low compared to older adults, the trend is alarming — colorectal cancer is no longer just a disease of aging.
But is it really such a mystery?
Uncovering the causes of cancer requires an objective look at the way we are living. If cancer were purely a genetic disease, we wouldn’t see rates skyrocketing in young people. Our genes haven’t changed dramatically in the last 50 years.
However, there have been major changes to our environment and lifestyles.
Over the past 50 years, more than 75,000 synthetic chemicals have been introduced into the environment, many without long-term safety testing. Our food system has shifted dramatically. Hormone imbalances are increasingly common. We’re becoming more and more disconnected from nature, getting less sunlight, sleeping poorly, and living under constant stress and artificial light.
Some of these changes include:
- Consumption of ultra-processed foods (high in seed oils, additives, and chemicals)
- Use of polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs) in nearly all packaged and restaurant foods
- Earlier puberty and widespread estrogen dominance
- Increased exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals (from plastics, pesticides, cosmetics, and cleaning products)
- Decrease in daily sunlight exposure
- Increase in sedentary lifestyles
- Increase in screen time and blue light exposure
- Environmental toxins (heavy metals, microplastics, industrial pollutants)
- Widespread sleep deprivation
- Increased C-section births and formula feeding
The ubiquity of seed oils is a major contributor.
Seed oils (soybean, canola, corn, and sunflower oil) have become nearly unavoidable in the modern food supply.
They became mainstream in the 1970s and 1980s, promoted as “heart-healthy” alternatives. Today, they’re found in nearly all processed foods, restaurant meals, condiments, snacks, and even baby formula. Their rise coincides with the growing burden of chronic disease.
PUFAs in seed oils:
- Disrupt thyroid function
- Disrupt glucose metabolism
- Increase the estrogenic burden on the body
- Generate toxic byproducts when exposed to heat and oxygen (like in our bodies)
- Disrupt liver function
Widespread estrogen dominance.
In recent years, researchers have begun to acknowledge that estrogen plays a far more active role in cancer development than previously understood.
Estrogen dominance doesn’t just contribute to breast cancer, it’s also been implicated in prostate cancer, thyroid cancer, endometrial cancer, and even colorectal cancer.
The fact that we are living in a world flooded with estrogenic stimuli, both internal and environmental, means that many people are living in a state of unrecognized hormonal imbalance that may be quietly increasing cancer risk.
Why has estrogen exposure surged?
- Widespread use of hormonal birth control and hormone replacement therapy (HRT), which introduces synthetic estrogens into the body
- Obesity, which increases estrogen through heightened aromatase activity in fat tissue
- Liver dysfunction, impairing the body’s ability to clear excess estrogen
- Chronic stress, which suppresses progesterone (estrogen’s natural counterbalance)
- Environmental xenoestrogens, synthetic compounds that mimic estrogen — found in:
- Plastics (like BPA and phthalates)
- Pesticides (atrazine)
- Fragranced personal care and cleaning products
- Industrial chemicals and packaging
- Contaminated water and food supply, where estrogenic residues from pharmaceuticals, animal hormones, and plastics make their way into drinking water and produce.
What can we do to minimize our cancer risk?
- Eliminate seed oils from the diet
- Cook meals at home
- Cook with saturated fats (butter, tallow, coconut oil)
- Avoid processed foods
- Read ingredient labels
- Minimize chemical exposure
- Filter water
- Use glass or stainless steel for cooking / storing food
- Avoid plastic
- Buy organic
- Swap out nontoxic personal care products
- Address estrogen dominance
- Consider progesterone supplementation
- Avoid phytoestrogens
- Reduce exposure to xenoestrogens found in plastics, receipts, fragrances, pesticides, and cosmetics
- Manage stress, which depletes protective hormones like progesterone and DHEA
Our cells respond to the conditions we create. Cancer is not simply the result of genetic misfortune; it is often the body’s reaction to prolonged, unresolved stress: biological, emotional, or environmental.