Population-Level Trends in Lifestyle Factors and Early-Onset Breast, Colorectal, and Uterine Cancers

Cancers · 2026-01-03

Objective: To evaluate population-level temporal relationships between modifiable lifestyle factors and rising breast, colorectal and uterine cancer incidence rates among females under 50 years old. Methods: This retrospective ecological study utilized data from the United States Cancer Statistics (USCS) for cancer incidence, the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) for health-related behaviors, and the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) for physical activity. Modifiable lifestyle factors analyzed included obesity (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2), smoking, alcohol use, fiber and saturated fat intake, caloric intake, and physical activity. Trends were assessed using average annual percent change (AAPC), and population-level correlations between cancer incidence and lifestyle factors were evaluated using Pearson correlation coefficients. Results: Between 2001 and 2018, 914,659 breast, 144,130 colorectal, and 124,399 uterine cancer cases were identified. The largest increases in cancer incidence occurred in age groups under 30 years old. Colorectal cancer increased by 6.9%, followed by uterine cancer at 4.8% and breast cancer at 1.7%, all p < 0.001. When examining this age group by race, colorectal cancer increased by 8.0% (p < 0.001) annually in White women aged 20–24 years, while uterine cancer rose 4.8% (p < 0.001) in Hispanic women in the 20–24 and 25–29 year age groups. Breast cancer also increased by 2.0% (p < 0.001) per year in White women 25–29 years old. Smoking rates decreased, and alcohol consumption and obesity rates increased. No significant correlation was found between cancer incidence and smoking, caloric intake, saturated fat, or physical activity. A moderate positive correlation was identified between alcohol use and cancer risk (r = 0.55–0.67, p < 0.05). Obesity prevalence showed strong population-level temporal correlation with cancer incidence for all three cancers with stratified analysis demonstrating the strongest correlations in patients with class III obesity. Conclusions: From 2001 to 2018, the incidence of breast, colorectal, and uterine cancers increased most sharply among women under 30 years of age. Over the same period, obesity prevalence in this population also increased. These population-level observations are hypothesis-generating and require confirmation in individual-level, prospective studies to determine whether and how obesity and other lifestyle factors influence early-onset cancer risk.

Establishing the First Allied Health Professional Doctoral Academy in Radiotherapy

Radiography · 2025-08-21

Associated Trends in Obesity and Endometrioid Endometrial Cancer in the United States

Obstetrics and Gynecology · 2025-01-02 · 16 citations

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the correlation in temporal trends in obesity and endometrioid endometrial cancer incidence in the United States using two comprehensive national databases. METHODS: This is a cohort study in which data on endometrioid endometrial cancer were obtained from the U.S. Cancer Statistics from 2001 to 2018 and corrected for hysterectomy and pregnancy. Data on obesity were collected from the NHANES (National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey) database from 1988 to 2018. Average annual percentage changes (AAPCs) were used to describe trends. Pearson correlation coefficients ( r ) were calculated to examine the relationship between trends. SEER*Stat 8.3.9.2 and joinpoint regression program 5.2.0 were used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: From U.S. Cancer Statistics data, 586,742 cases of endometrioid cancer were identified from 2001 to 2018. The average annual increase in endometrioid cancer was as follows: Hispanic 1.37% (95% CI, 1.14-1.60, P <.001), Black 1.30% (95% CI, 1.04-1.57, P <.001), and White -0.17 (95% CI, -0.91 to 0.58, P =.656). Women aged 20-29 years had a 4.48% annual increase (95% CI, 3.72-5.25, P <.001) and women aged 30-39 years had a 3.00% annual increase in rates (95% CI, 2.65-3.36, P <.001). According to the NHANES data, the prevalence of obesity in 2018 in adult women was as follows: Black 56.80%, Hispanic 44.10%, and White 40.90%. An examination of trends by age showed that women aged 20-29 years had the highest annual rise in obesity compared with other age groups (AAPC 7.36%, 95% CI, 4.0-10.8, P <.05). Strong and statistically significant correlations between endometrioid cancer and obesity trends were noted for Black ( r =0.78, P =.01) and Hispanic ( r =0.91, P <.001) women, as well as women aged 20-29 years ( r =0.72, P =.03) and 30-39 years ( r =0.88, P =.001). CONCLUSION: The current data demonstrate a temporal association between the increasing incidence of obesity and endometrioid endometrial cancer, and this effect disproportionately affects younger women and Black and Hispanic women.

Survival impact and prognostic factors of secondary cytoreduction in platinum-sensitive recurrent ovarian cancer: a systematic review and trial-level meta-analysis

International Journal of Gynecological Cancer · 2025-10-25 · 1 citations

Isolated Low-Grade Serous Carcinoma Arising in Inguinal Lymph Nodes in the Setting of Endosalpingiosis: A Case Report

SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

The correlation between increasing incidence of uterine, colorectal, and breast cancer among young female patients in the United States

Gynecologic Oncology Reports · 2025-06-01

Should We Embrace INTERLACE?: Concurrent Pembrolizumab and Chemoradiotherapy for Locally-Advanced Cervical Cancer Requires More Invasive Brachytherapy Implants

International Journal of Radiation Oncology*Biology*Physics · 2025-09-01

Obesity and high-risk histologic subtypes of endometrial cancer: Is there a correlation?

Gynecologic Oncology · 2025-09-01

Growing teratoma syndrome with extra pelvic metastasis and gliomatosis peritonei

Gynecologic Oncology Reports · 2025-04-01

•Growing teratoma syndrome occurs when mature teratomas are discovered in patients who have previously received adjuvant chemotherapy for immature teratoma.•Gliomatosis peritonei is a rare condition often found alongside immature teratoma.•Synchronous identification of growing teratoma syndrome and gliomatosis peritonei has rarely been reported.•Comprehensive abdominopelvic imaging is critical to the surveillance protocol after treatment of immature teratoma to assess and appropriately treat this phenomenon.

UK-based clinical testing programme for somatic and germline <i>BRCA1/2, ATM</i> and <i>CDK12</i> mutations in prostate cancer: first results

BMJ Oncology · 2025-01-01 · 6 citations

Objective Germline BRCA2 pathogenic variants (PVs) are known to cause ~4% of prostate cancer, but other homologous repair genes, BRCA1, ATM, PALB2 and Lynch syndrome genes are also involved. Our objective was to assess the contribution of germline and somatic gene variants to prostate cancer. Methods and analysis We reviewed germline/tumour DNA testing from 450 localised or metastatic prostate cancer cases in NW England mainly from 2022 to 2024. ORs for additional genes used detection rates in controls from the BRIDGES study. Results 450 cases underwent BRCA1/2 germline/somatic testing with 2 germline PVs in BRCA1 (0.4%) and 27 in BRCA2 (6.0%)—total 6.4% and 6/328 (1.8%) in ATM . There were 280 metastatic prostate cancer samples tested with 11 (4%) somatic BRCA2 and 7 (2.7%) somatic ATM identified with 1 somatic BRCA1 . Total PVs in BRCA2 were 31/280 (11%), including germline and indeterminate. CDK12 somatic PVs were found in 9/220 (4.1%), including 2 digenic with BRCA2 and 2 which were biallelic. Conclusion In this continuous clinical evaluation, BRCA2 is the most frequently identified prostate cancer gene with over 10% involvement in metastatic disease. BRCA2 and CDK12 somatic PVs do not appear to be mutually exclusive. BRCA1 does not appear to be a significant contributor to prostate cancer progression.