A ‘frightening’ explosion of young women developing one of the deadliest cancers has baffled experts.
Rates of pancreatic cancer have soared by up to 200 per cent in women under the age of 25 since the 1990s.
Overall, incidences of the disease — which has a five-year survival rate of just 5 per cent — have increased by around 17 per cent over the same time-span, with soaring obesity rates suspected to be behind the trend.
Yet oncologists cannot explain the particular surge in young women, with no such spike noted in men of the same age.
Professor Karol Sikora, a world-renowned oncologist with over 40 years’ experience, told MailOnline there are theories it has to do with the modern diet.
But so far, he added, researchers have ‘no idea’ of the cause behind the ‘frightening’ trend, especially in younger woman.
‘It is probably something to do with dietary change over the last 20 years,’ he said.
‘Fortunately pancreatic cancer is rare in the young but it is a bit worrying. It shows that we just don’t have all the answers.’
He added that Britain wasn’t alone in this trend, with studies from the US indicating similar increases in the disease across the Atlantic and further research was needed to uncover the cause.
Nicola Smith, senior health information manager at Cancer Research UK, also said more research was needed to unpick why pancreatic cancer rates in the UK were increasing.
‘Pancreatic cancer cases in the UK are on the rise, and we have seen a small increase in the number of young women being diagnosed,’ she said.
‘More research is still needed to fully understand why this is happening.’
Dubbed the ‘silent killer’ due to its subtle symptoms which mean it is frequently only spotted in its final stages, pancreatic cancer kills about 10,000 Brits every year.
© Copyright RawNews1st
