SAN FRANCISCO — Oncology research continues to better understand and quantify the role that social determinants play in the development of cancers to help find ways to reduce the burden of cancer on society and individuals.
A team of researchers, including those at the DoD Gynecologic Cancer Center of Excellence, looked at the incidence and trends of cancers and social determinant risk factors such as obesity, alcohol use, tobacco use, physical inactivity, and human papillomavirus (HPV) infection using data from the U.S. Cancer Statistics program from 2001 to 2018.1
During the 17 years studied, 28,175,859 cancers were reported, with 51.4% occurring in men. Two-thirds (65.8%) of the cancers were risk factor-associated overall. Women developed more than 60.1% of risk factor-associated cancers, although the rate decreased by 1.15% annually throughout the study.
Age-specific incidences decreased in both women and men over age 50. Among those aged 20 to 45, risk factor-associated cancers rose from 91.5 per 100,000 to 97.3 per 100,000, for an annual increase of 0.4% in younger women. No change was observed in incidence in men aged 20 to 45.
The researchers found “there is a disproportionate burden of risk factor-associated cancers in women with increasing rates in younger age groups.” They noted that further research is needed to understand the reason for the disproportionate impact of social determinants on young women.
- Johnson CR, Lio CIL, Chan A, Tian C, Darcy KM, Kapp DS, Chan JK. The disproportionate burden of cancer associated with social behaviors in young women in the United States. J Clin Oncol 40, 2022 (suppl 16; abstr 10575)
