Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • NEWS FEATURE

Why are so many young people getting cancer? What the data say

Clues to a modern mystery could be lurking in information collected generations ago.
  1. Heidi Ledford
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

Conceptual illustration showing a doctor investigating cancer data.

Illustration by Acapulco Studio

Of the many young people whom Cathy Eng has treated for cancer, the person who stood out the most was a young woman with a 65-year-old’s disease. The 16-year-old had flown from China to Texas to receive treatment for a gastrointestinal cancer that typically occurs in older adults. Her parents had sold their house to fund her care, but it was already too late. “She had such advanced disease, there was not much that I could do,” says Eng, now an oncologist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 627, 258-260 (2024)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-00720-6

References

  1. Zhao, J. et al. BMJ Oncol. 2, e000049 (2023).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Siegel, R. L, Giaquinto, A. N. & Jemal, A. CA Cancer J. Clin. 74, 12–49 (2024).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Xu, S. et al. JAMA Netw. Open 7, e2353331 (2024).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Kratzer, T. B. et al. CA Cancer J. Clin. 73, 120–146 (2023).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Ugai, T. et al. Cancer Immunol. Immunother. 71, 933–942 (2022).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Murphy, C. C., Cirillo, P. M., Krigbaum, N. Y. & Cohn, B. J. Endocr. Soc. 5, A496–A497 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links