Cancers linked to obesity are rising at a faster rate in millennials than in older generations in the United States, the American Cancer Society has said.
It said a steep rise in obesity in the past 40 years may have increased cancer risk in younger generations.
And it warned the problem could set back recent progress on cancer.
The Society studied millions of health records from 1995 to 2014, publishing its findings in The Lancet Public Health.
In the last few decades, there has been mounting evidence that certain cancers can be linked to obesity.
Researchers found that the rates of six out of 12 obesity-related cancers (colorectal, uterine, gallbladder, kidney, pancreatic and multiple myeloma – a blood cancer) all went up, particularly in people under the age of 50.
And they found steeper rises in successively younger generations aged 25 to 49 – and particularly in millennials, in their 20s and 30s.
For example, the risk of colorectal, uterine and gallbladder cancers has doubled for millennials compared to baby boomers, now aged 50 to 70, at the same age.
Some of these cancers increased in people over 50 too, but the rises were not as steep.
Researchers say this trend may be down to the rapid rise in obesity in the last few decades with “younger generations worldwide experiencing an earlier and longer exposure to the dangers of extra weight”.
