A World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) study of the UK, US and Dutch data found a rise in early onset of certain types of cancer since 2000/2001, prompting warnings about lifestyle choices.
Although cancer has been increasing across all age groups globally, the rate of increase among younger people is higher than others.
In England, the number of people under 50 diagnosed with prostate cancer has gone up four times since 2001, while early onset bowel, kidney and uterine cancer diagnoses more than doubled.
The World Cancer Research Fund analysis found “significant increases” in early onset cancers for seven cancer types in England, five types in the US and four in the Netherlands.
In England, of the 12 tumour types studied, the rates of prostate cancer among men under 50 jumped from one in every 100,000 people in 2001 to 3.6 in every 100,000 in 2023.
Over the same period, rates of bowel cancer among the under 50s leapt from 3.9 in 100,000 people in 2001 to 8.4 in 100,000 in 2023, while early onset uterine and kidney cancers also doubled to 3.9 and 3 per 100,000 people respectively.
The rate of breast cancer among the under 50s increased from 42 to 47.5 per 100,000 in 2023, while there were also increases in the incidence of early onset pancreatic and liver cancers.
Experts said the figures reflected the growing global obesity epidemic, poor diets and insufficient exercise, as well as growing awareness of cancer and earlier diagnosis.
In contrast, rates of lung cancer among the under 50s declined in England and the other two countries, reflecting continuing declines in smoking in those countries.
The UK recently introduced a generational smoking ban making it illegal to sell tobacco to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009.
The bill raises the legal age for buying tobacco by one year, every year, and this would mean the affected age groups face a lifetime ban.
There was also a demand for universal screening for prostate cancer, but the UK National Screening Committee (NSC) had ruled that a targeted screening for men aged 45 to 61 who have a pathogenic (able to cause disease) BRCA2 variant with a family history of breast, ovarian, pancreatic, or prostate cancer.
In the US there has been an increase in the early onset of breast, colorectal, kidney, pancreas, and uterine cancers, while in Netherlands it is cervix, colorectal, kidney, and liver cancers.
