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News.com.au
an hour ago
- News.com.au
Aussies in their 30s and 40s are being diagnosed with cancer at unprecedented rates
Australians in their 30s and 40s are being diagnosed with cancer at unprecedented rates, with at least 10 types of the disease on the rise. The worrying phenomenon, known as early onset cancer, is drawing increasing concern from experts who say the trend is steep, widespread, and in many cases, not fully understood. New figures from Cancer Australia, the federal government's cancer agency, reveal staggering increases between 2000 and 2024. Among 30 to 39-year-olds, rates of prostate cancer have climbed 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. While changes in diagnostic techniques may partially account for the growth in some cancers, such as prostate, most of the rise appears to defy such explanation. Professor Dorothy Keefe, the chief executive of Cancer Australia, told the ABC's Dr Norman Swan that approximately 10 types of cancer are now showing significantly elevated rates in young adults. She says that cancer has traditionally been a disease of ageing, with common forms such as bowel, breast, and lung cancer typically becoming more prevalent in older populations. And Australia isn't alone in facing this challenge. Data from cancer registries in the United States show a similarly dramatic rise in early onset cancers. Dr Philip Rosenberg, a recently retired biostatistician from the US National Cancer Institute, has observed clear generational differences when comparing Generation X to the Baby Boomers. He said the most notable increases have occurred in cancers of the colon, rectum, thyroid, pancreas, prostate (in men), and oestrogen receptor-positive breast cancer (in women). According to Dr Rosenberg, around half of all cancer types now show some generational shift in incidence. Bowel cancer is of particular concern in Australia, where rates among 30 to 39-year-olds have increased by 173 per cent since the year 2000. Even more troubling is the fact that diagnoses in this age group often come at a later stage, when the disease is more advanced and harder to treat. Despite decades of research, the causes of cancer remain complex and elusive. All cancers are caused by changes in genes, but not all of these changes are inherited. In well-known hereditary cases such as the BRCA mutations linked to breast and ovarian cancer, or Lynch Syndrome associated with bowel cancer, a clear genetic pathway is evident. However, most young people affected by early onset cancer do not carry these mutations. Instead, many scientists believe that environmental factors — or the 'exposome' — could be playing a role. These are external influences that interact with a person's genes to trigger malignant changes. The key may lie in understanding the environment that today's 30- and 40-year-olds were exposed to as children or even in utero, particularly between the 1960s and 1990s. During those decades, the Western world experienced major societal shifts. Childhood obesity began to rise, diets became more reliant on ultra-processed foods, and antibiotics were more commonly prescribed. Caesarean section rates also increased, potentially disrupting the transfer of microbiomes from mother to child — a factor that could affect immune system development. Microplastics still the great unknown Compounding the concerns is the growing presence of synthetic chemicals and plastics in everyday life. Despite being a new area of research, some scientists have warned that microplastics can have harmful effects on the human body, especially in large concentrations. In 2022, microplastics were detected in human blood for the first time, sparking a flurry of new research. As the name suggests, microplastics are small plastic particles, less than 5mm in diameter, and are reported to be near ubiquitous: they have been found in drinking water, food, and the atmosphere. A University of Newcastle report commissioned by the World Wide Fund for Nature found that the average individual could be ingesting as much as 5 grams, or 1 credit card's worth of microplastics every week. The WHO said in 2019 that the most immediate risk to human health could be from the toxicity of some microplastics, which may be from the production process itself or toxic substances the particles pick up from the environment. 'Further research is needed to obtain a more accurate assessment of exposure to microplastics and their potential human health,' said Dr Maria Neira, director of the WHO's department of public health, environment, and social determinants of health said at the time.
ABC News
3 hours ago
- ABC News
Country dialysis patient faces choice of moving to Adelaide or stopping treatment
Move to Adelaide or stop accessing life-saving medical support. These are the options Chris Thomas, a 68-year-old Crystal Brooke resident in the mid-north of South Australia, faces. The retired farmer has been receiving treatment in the Lyell McEwin Hospital in Adelaide since May after he had two major cardiac arrests while undergoing rehabilitation following the amputation of a leg. This is in addition to him needing regular dialysis, treatment he had been receiving in Port Pirie for the past four years. Given his complex medical conditions, Mr Thomas was told he was not medically fit to be discharged from hospital or for transfer to Port Pirie. So now he and his family are facing the tough choice: move to Adelaide or effectively give up medical support. His daughter Alex Thomas was disappointed more effort hadn't been made to find alternative options for her father given he had lived in the country his whole life and didn't want to move to the city. "And that when you're vulnerable and when you reach your 11th hour of life that you're going to be able to stay within your home no matter what your postcode is." Ms Thomas has made an impassioned plea to SA Health to investigate options that would allow her father to return home and keep receiving treatment. "I want them to honour his desire to go home," she said. "I want them to cease discriminating against him because he lives in a regional area." SA Health Minister Chris Picton said his office had reached out to Mr Thomas's family, and there would be a senior medical review of his case to "see what options could be available". "We provide dialysis services right across the state, but there are obviously some levels of medical conditions that people have where they do need to be in a tertiary hospital setting," Mr Picton said. "Ultimately, in a state like South Australia, we can't provide the quaternary level of hospital care and the sub-speciality level of hospital care in each locality of everywhere across regional South Australia. Satellite dialysis units and home dialysis services are available across a number of the state's metropolitan and regional health services, but are designed to care for less complex and lower-risk patients. In a statement, SA Health extended its "sincerest sympathies to Mr Thomas and his family, who are navigating an incredibly difficult time". "Due to Mr Thomas's ongoing, high-risk medical issues, he is not medically fit for discharge from Lyell McEwin Hospital, or for transfer to Port Pirie," the statement said. "The health and wellbeing of our patients is always our priority. Ms Thomas however said that it was important to her dad, who had worked as a farmer and pastoralist as well as at Roxby Downs, that he spend the rest of his days living and receiving treatment in the bush. "It's his choice, no-one is more acutely aware of his mortality than he is," Ms Thomas said. "If he moves to Adelaide he is going to be grossly isolated from everything he has ever known. SA Health staff said at no stage had Mr Thomas or his family been advised that he should withdraw from medical care. The Port Pirie Satellite Dialysis Unit offers expert care in renal dialysis; like other satellite dialysis units, Port Pirie offers care for stable, lower-complexity patients.
ABC News
4 hours ago
- ABC News
Patting could save you pet's life after owners detect 17.5 centimetre stick embedded in cat's stomach
The X-ray showed a 17.5 centimetre long stick jammed between all the vital organs of the cat's stomach. Yet the six-year-old tortoiseshell cat on the examination table was bright and happy and had no external signs of trauma, no blood and no visible wounds. It was a life-threatening, mysterious incident that left Smooch the cat lucky to be alive. Earlier that night, Smooch had returned from her normally hour-long evening outdoor explore after just 15 minutes with her fur raised. Owners Chris and Greg Peters didn't suspect anything out of the ordinary. "She likes to explore [and] she's a bit of a jumper, too," Ms Peters said. "I thought, 'maybe her fur's up; another cat hurt her or something.'" But, reaching down for a cuddle, Ms Peters felt a hard, golf-ball sized lump under Smooch's skin. Mr Peters said the situation was "totally unbelievable". The couple rushed Smooch to the vet, where Canberra Veterinary Emergency Service (CVES) hospital director Megan Wright said it was "a really unusual, complex presentation". She said the vet team initially suspected "a simple cat fight abscess", which is often a soft lump caused by an infected bite wound. "Cats often get into fights with each other. Whilst they love us as humans, they often don't love each other," Dr Wright said. "It wasn't until a physical examination, and we actually put our hands on her, that we noticed that the feel of the lump was very different. What they were feeling was the end of the 17.5 cm stick. It had entered behind Smooch's primordial pouch — a normal flap of loose skin and fatty tissue along a cat's belly, near the hind legs. Dr Wright said the fat surrounding the end of the stick had grown over to enclose the entry wound. "It wasn't until we took that X-ray that we realised the extent of the damage, and how much pain Smooch would be in," she said. The stick had penetrated behind the ribs through the abdomen without piercing any of the nearby vital organs. "Everyone was shocked by the findings," another CVES team member said. "It was a … miracle that Smooch wasn't showing any neurological signs. She was bright, happy, and had overall normal vital signs [but] her condition quickly became very serious." Within half an hour of her arrival, Smooch was on the operating table for several hours of surgery. "The stick not only didn't hit any of the vital organs, blood vessels, or nerves on the way in, but [the surgeon] carefully dissected the stick on the way out, to make sure that none of those organs were damaged," Dr Wright said. Post-op, Ms Peters said Smooch was "doing wonderfully" though "there's a bit of fur still missing after the operation". "She is back to normal, jumping to the top of the tower, jumping on the back of the chairs, sleeping on our bed," she said. Dr Wright said owners who patted or cuddled their pet daily could detect physical or behavioural changes earlier and that the Peters' daily cat-cuddle habit was vital to Smooch's speedy diagnosis and the successful treatment. She said owners should be alert for things like changes in the animal's weight, coat, skin (including lumps and bumps and especially paralysis ticks), mobility, and energy levels, areas of pain or discomfort, and anywhere your animal doesn't want to be touched where they previously did. "We don't ever see pets, especially in emergency, when they're well, so owners who can identify what is normal for their pet versus what is abnormal, really help us in identifying where we need to focus our attention." However, not all pets enjoy being patted and cuddled, and even those that usually do might be reactive due to pain or discomfort. "If you're concerned … give us a call [or] reach out to your veterinary GP and have a chat. It may [not be an issue] but because you've noticed it and you noticed that it's not your pet's 'normal', it's always best to have that conversation," Dr Wright said.
