The eight most important ways to reduce your cancer risk: Top experts' advice as half of tumours are linked to six factors and cases soar among young people By Thea Jordan Published: 12:04, 15 July 2024 | Updated: 12:04, 15 July 2024 e-mail View comments Young people don't need to worry about getting cancer , or do they? Although cancer is a disease mainly affecting older people, research suggests a growing number of younger people are now developing cancers years before they should. The number of under-50s diagnosed with cancer increased by nearly 80 per cent between 1990 and 2019 according to a major study published in BMJ Oncology. The number of deaths in younger patients rose by 28 per cent.

The Princess of Wales was just 42 when she was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year. Campaigner Dame Deborah James died of bowel cancer in 2022 at the age of 40 - 31 years younger than the average age for developing the disease, which is 71 in England and Wales. Girls Aloud star Sarah Harding died of breast cancer in 2021 at 39.

Kate, the Princess of Wales, was just 42 when she was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year The growing trend of 'early onset' cases (as diagnoses in the under-50s are known) is alarming experts. For while ageing remains one of the main risk factors - eight out of ten cases of breast cancer are in the over-50s - more than 10,000 UK women under 50 are diagnosed with breast cancer every year, according to the charity Breast Cancer Now. Last week the America.