Is pancreatic cancer really increasing among young people?

Top line:

The increasing incidence of pancreatic cancer among American youth is primarily due to improved detection of early endocrine cancers and not due to an increase in pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Given that mortality rates have remained stable in this population, the increased incidence likely reflects previously undetected infections rather than a true increase in new infections, researchers say. say:

Methodology:

• Data from several registries show that the incidence of pancreatic cancer is increasing among young people, especially women, in the United States and around the world.
• In a new analysis, researchers ask whether the observed increase in pancreatic cancer rates among young people in the United States represents a true increase in cancer incidence or whether the diagnosis is coming under increased scrutiny. I wanted to confirm whether this was the case. If the incidence of pancreatic cancer is indeed increasing, “we would expect incidence and mortality to increase simultaneously, as well as earlier and later stage diagnoses,” the researchers explained.
• Researchers looked at US Cancer Statistics, a database covering nearly the entire U.S. population from 2001 to 2020, to determine the prevalence, histology, and stage distribution of pancreatic cancer in individuals aged 15 to 39 years. We collected the data. Pancreatic cancer mortality data for the same period is from the National Vital Statistics System.
• The researchers considered four histologic categories: the main pancreatic cancer histology, adenocarcinoma, the rarer subtypes, endocrine carcinoma and solid pseudopapillary carcinoma, and an “other” category. did. The researchers also categorized the incidence by stage as early stage (on-site or local) or late stage (regional or remote).

remove:

• The incidence of pancreatic cancer increased by 2.1 times in young women (incidence rate, 3.3 to 6.9 per million people) and by 1.6 times in young men (incidence rate, 3.9 per million people) between 2001 and 2019. ~6.2 people) increased. However, mortality among women remained stable. (1.5 deaths per million people, annual percentage change [AAPC]-0.5%. Men (2.5 deaths per million, AAPC, −0.1%, 95% CI, −0.8% to 0.6%) during this period.
• Focusing on cancer subtypes, the increase in incidence was primarily due to early endocrine carcinomas and solid pseudopapillary neoplasms in women rather than adenocarcinomas (which remained stable over the study period) .
• Looking at cancer stages, most of the increase in incidence is due to small tumors (less than 2 cm) and early cancer detection, ranging from 0.6 to 3.7 per million for women and 0.6 to 3.7 per million for men. The number increased from 0.4 to 2.2. The authors also found no statistically significant change in the incidence of late-stage cancer in women or men.
• Surgical treatment rates for pancreatic cancer have increased, more than tripled in women (from 1.5 to 4.7 per million) and more than doubled in men (from 1.1 to 2.3 per million).

actual:

“Pancreatic cancer may be another cancer currently subject to overdiagnosis, i.e. detection of disease that is not destined to cause symptoms or death,” the authors conclude. “Although the observed changes in incidence are small, overdiagnosis is particularly concerning for pancreatic cancer because pancreatic surgery carries significant risks of morbidity (particularly pancreatic fistulas) and mortality.”

sauce:

The study was presented with lead author Vishal R. Patel, MD, MPH, and corresponding author H. Gilbert Welch, MD, MPH, of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. online on November 19th Annual report of internal medicine.

Limitations:

This study was limited by a lack of data on how the cancer was detected, which may have affected the interpretation of the findings.

Disclosure:

A disclosure form is available online with the article.

This article was created using several editing tools, including AI as part of the process. A human editor reviewed this content before publication.