A Harvard University study showed troubling results that more young people are being diagnosed with early onset cancer.
Dr. David Rivadeneira, a colorectal surgeon at Northwell Health, says there has been a significant trend in about 14 different types of cancers showing up in people under the age of 50. The revelation comes after the Harvard study looking at cancer registry records for 44 countries.
"Most commonly breast cancer, colorectal cancer, pancreas, esophagus, stomach, kidney, endometrial cancer, head and neck cancer and thyroid cancer," Rivadeneira says.
Some of the causes of the cancers showing up in younger people could be multi-bacterial, environmental, dietary or hereditary, according to the doctor.
Hilary Levine is a breast cancer survivor who was diagnosed during the pandemic. A year earlier, her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer.
"I felt something during quarantine - my husband said, 'You'll go for your appointment and everything will be fine,'" Levine says.
She says the appointment may have saved her life and that it's really important to have mammograms and sonograms. Levine says the sonogram is what caught her cancer.
Rivadeneira also says people can reduce the chances of getting early onset cancer by living a healthy lifestyle and maintaining an ideal body weight.
Medical experts also say lifestyle choices like eating processed foods, smoking and alcohol consumption could lead to early cases of cancer.