Gen X, Millennials are about three times more likely than their parents to be diagnosed with appendix cancer, finds a study

The pain was so acute that Chris Williams took the hospital.

It was Tuesday night in September 2021, when Williams began to experience pulsating abdominal pain and nausea. By the next morning it had deteriorated.

“I had to go to Air,” said Williams, who lives in Brooklyn.

At the hospital, he was diagnosed with appendicitis and was removed surgically. About a week later, he met his medical team to remove Staples and discuss the next steps – and then received shocking news.

“They found a tumor sitting on my application and biopsy of this tumor and determined that it was cancer,” says Williams, who was 48 years old at the time.

“It was actually a blessing,” he said. “It was really just a goddess, in my eyes and a blessing for me to find the tumor -the tumor to trigger my application to almost tear it up -because later they found that it was Stage III. If it had left me long, it would be a stage IV,” which was the most.

Williams, who is now without cancer after completing treatment in November 2022, is among a growing group of cancer patients in the United States who have been diagnosed at a young age.

“Anxious and disturbing”

The application that plays a role in maintaining the immune system is a small organ similar to the bag that is attached to the colon in the lower right side of the abdomen.

Although appendix cancer is rare – it is usually thought to affect about 1 or 2 people per 1 million in the United States every year – diagnoses increase sharply among generation X and Millennials, according to a new study.

Compared to people born from 1941 to 1949, the incidence of appendix cancer is more than morning among people born between 1976 and 1984 and more than four times, among people born between 1981 and 1989, according to studies published this week in the annals of internal medicine. These frequency increases have been found to have occurred from 1975 to 2019.

“It is generally anxious,” says Dr. Andreana Holovatiy, a leading author of a study and assistant in hematology and oncology at the Medical Center of the University of Vanderbilt and Vanderbilt-Ingram Center.

“We see some of these generations of effects on cancer of the colon, rectum, stomach, so this is one of the reasons why we were curious to study this for cancerous diseases of rare use. However, the percentages and trends we observed were anxious and anxious,” she said.

Researchers in the new study – from the University Medical Center Vanderbilt, the University of West Virginia and the Science Center of Texas University – analyzed data on 4,858 people in the United States, 20 or more years, which were diagnosed with cancer between 1975 and 2019.

The data are divided into five -year age groups and show an increase in the frequency of cancer of the Cohort of birth, especially among people born after 1945, the researchers wrote in the study.

Although the new study did not specifically investigate why this frequency is growing, researchers say it is unlikely to be explained by progress in the screening of the disease or diagnostic instruments.

“There are no standardized screening techniques for appendical cancer. Many of them are accidentally found after presenting something like an acute appendicitis,” Holowatyj said.

Rather, the tendency can be tied to “environmental exposure, which can increase the risk to generations that are now entering the middle of the udder,” the researchers write. And similar trends “have also been reported on colon, rectal and stomach cancer, which suggests that possible risk factors can contribute to gastrointestinal cancer as a whole.

For example, obesity has been identified as a risk factor for diagnosis of application cancer and is recognized as a risk factor for colon cancer, Holowatyj said, adding that identifying what risk factors can lead to the fact that these cancers can help detect ways to prevent disease.

“The fact that we see these trends in parallel in other cancers of the gastrointestinal tract tells us or suggests that there may be both shared and various risk factors that can contribute to the development of cancer in the younger generations in the gastrointestinal tract,” said Holovathy.

“It will be important to understand – what are these shared factors or how these risk factors are different, both in magnitude and at absolute risk in these types of gastric cancer – to help us support the development of effective prevention strategies and ultimately strive to reduce this weight or turn these trends,” she said.

There are no specific recommendations for screening for administration, but the symptoms of the disease usually include abdominal or pelvic pain, bloating, nausea and vomiting – which can often imitate symptoms of appendicitis. The cancer of the application can be treated with surgery in which the appendix is ​​removed. If the cancer has spread, patients often receive chemotherapy.

“This is a disease where, if it does not catch before the appendix is ​​destroyed, the tumor cells are dispersed in the abdominal cavity often,” Holowatyj said. “Therefore, up to 1 in every 2 patients are diagnosed with metastatic disease” or cancer that has spread.

Growing cancers in young adults

The study showing an increase in the incidence of appendix cancer among younger adults is no surprise to Dr. Andrea Kerzek, a colorectal cancer Center and Cancer at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Center, which heals Williams.

“We know that the cancer of the early onset appendix is ​​part of the greater history of cancer cancers in the early onset, including colorectal cancer,” says Cercek, who did not participate in the new study.

She has seen the trend first -hand among her own patients – but it remains unclear what specific factors can stimulate these increases.

“There are many suspects, including changes in lifestyle, changes in diet. People talk about obesity, less activity. But there is nothing that responds to all. And then there are changes in the environment,” Kercek said. “I think this is probably some kind of combination, something multifactorial, but we have not yet identified it. Fortunately, there is a lot of work now, many research is in this.”

Despite the increasing frequency, Cercek stressed that the cancer of the application remains rare.

“It’s very rare, even though it rises,” she said. “However, this is an important part of this comprehensive history of cancer growth in young adults.”

“I have everything to be thankful for”

Williams’ trip after his cancer diagnosis was not easy, he said, but he remains grateful for his care team. After being diagnosed with him, he sought treatment at the Sloan Catering Memorial Center in New York, where he underwent additional surgery and receives chemotherapy.

“For me, I could look at it in a few different ways. I can moan. I can complain. I can say,” I’m bitter. “Or I could be grateful that this was found and that there was a solution for treatment,” Williams said. “It could be something that killed me, and because I don’t, I have the feeling that I have everything to be grateful for.”

Prior to diagnosing cancer, Williams thought it was doing everything right. He ate mostly a healthy diet and regularly trained, but as a project manager at that time New York, he also had a lot of stress.

At the age of 42, he received his first heart attack, he said. He had a second heart attack a few weeks after the diagnosis of appendix cancer. Then it happened third shortly after his surgery at the Sloan Catering Cancer Memorial Center, he said. And last year, Williams had a fourth heart attack. Blockages were found in his heart and he said he was treated with stenting, in which a flexible tube was placed in the arteries to increase blood flow to the heart.

“Many of what I was experiencing is due to stress,” Williams said.

“My personality was the one I was very internalized in.” But in this way, as you are internalized, you get sick. This internalization leads to stress and this can lead to heart disease, which can lead to cancer. “

Inspired by its own health challenges, Williams launches a brookly -based non -profit, body and soul to connect color communities, especially black men in undervalued communities, with physical and mental health instruments, as well as increased communication with healthcare providers to help improve their overall health.

“We also teach them how to advocate for themselves, as much of the challenges that face, especially when they have conversations with colorful men, is the anxiety not to be seen or heard when they enter the hospital,” Williams said, adding that it emphasizes the importance of listening to your body and having a doctor for primary help.

“Especially in the era where we see things that happen as men and women who are diagnosed at an older age with various diseases, I really think it is important for us to start a priority for the unification of a care team,” he said. “We have to take a more comprehensive approach to how we treat ourselves and how we take care of ourselves.”

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