While cancer deaths have steadily declined over the past 30 years, cancer rates have been on the rise —especially, a new study has found, for members of Generation X. By the time they turn 60, Gen Xers (born between 1965 and 1980), are projected to see a cancer rate higher than that of Baby Boomers—and any prior generation born between 1964 and 1908, for that matter. The only exception was with Gen X Asian or Pacific Islander males, whose rates of cancer are projected to go down, per the report.
The findings were published this week in the JAMA Network Open and come out of the National Cancer Institute . The cohort study was led by senior investigator Philip Rosenberg, PhD, who used what’s called an age period cohort model to make the predictions, analyzing data of 3.8 million people (Asian or Pacific Islander, Hispanic, non-Hispanic Black, and non-Hispanic White) with cancer through the institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program .
Rosenberg tells Fortune that for him, understanding how cancer rates vary from one generation to the next is a research passion. “It’s kind of understanding history in a way,” he says. And these results, he admits, took him by surprise.
“Going in, I was anticipating that I may see colon or rectal cancer rates in particular to be as high or higher than the Boomers, and that’s because there’s just so much of these studies coming out about early onset colorectal cancer cases,” he says. “But what kind of too.
