More and more young people in Vietnam are getting cancer.

According to information from the Ministry of Health , a study conducted by the University of Edinburgh (Scotland) and Zhejiang University Medical School (China), published in the BMJ Oncology Journal on September 7, showed that the number of cancer cases in people under 50 years old globally increased by nearly 80% over the past three decades.

Vietnam is also one of the countries with a high cancer rate in the world and there is a trend of "younger" people with this particularly dangerous disease.

More and more young people in Vietnam are getting cancer. — Cancer patients are tending to "get younger" due to eating habits and the use of alcohol, beer, and cigarettes (illustrative photo - internet source).

According to the report of the Ministry of Health , cancer is currently becoming a major burden for countries, including Vietnam. On average, each year our country has about 183,000 new cases and about 122,000 deaths due to cancer, mainly liver, lung and breast cancer.

Age is still the biggest predictor of cancer risk. About 90% of cancers affect people over 50 and half affect people over 75. However, cancer patients are getting younger.

Of all common cancers in our country, liver cancer currently ranks first in both incidence and mortality. According to Globocan - the International Agency for Research on Cancer, on average, nearly 26,500 cases of liver cancer are recorded in Vietnam each year, accounting for 14.5% of all cancer cases.

Particularly at the Nuclear Medicine and Oncology Center (Bach Mai Hospital), many cases of liver cancer are treated at a very young age. For example, in the case of Mr. D.TH (31 years old, in Hung Yen), there were no unusual signs, but when he went for a general health check-up to work abroad, the results surprised and shocked Mr. H because he discovered a tumor in his liver. After a cell biopsy, the doctor diagnosed that the male patient had primary liver cancer.

After liver cancer, in Vietnam, lung cancer ranks second in new cases with more than 26,000 cases, as well as the mortality rate of nearly 24,000 cases annually, in both sexes. Associate Professor, Dr. Pham Cam Phuong, Director of the Center for Nuclear Medicine and Oncology (Bach Mai Hospital) said that recently, through actual treatment, doctors have noticed that the rate of rejuvenation in lung cancer is higher.

It is worth mentioning that the number of women with lung cancer is also increasing, while this disease has long been more common in men. If in the past, doctors only encountered lung cancer patients over 50 years old who were men, now, there are female patients under 40 years old.

In addition to liver and lung cancer, hospitals also receive many cases of breast cancer in young people - a disease that was previously common in people aged 40 and over. K Hospital has been treating many patients with breast cancer who are not yet married or female students who have just entered university.

Referring to the reasons why cancer patients are getting “younger”, Dr. Ha Hai Nam, Deputy Head of Abdominal Surgery Department I (K Hospital) said that people’s level of concern for health has also increased along with more modern screening technology, which has helped detect many cases of cancer at a very young age. On the other hand, today, young people are also exposed to cancer-causing agents earlier.

“There are 3 main carcinogens, including: Physical agents (radiation, sunlight, etc.); chemical agents (chemicals used in industry, dyes, etc.); biological agents (HP bacteria, hepatitis B, etc.) found in beer, alcohol, food and drinks.

"Young people drinking alcohol, smoking early, being addicted to fast food with lots of fat, being sedentary, staying up late... will promote abnormal cells (cancer) to develop earlier than their age," Dr. Ha Hai Nam analyzed.

According to information from K Hospital, smoking is the cause of about 21% of all cancer deaths worldwide, including 90% of lung cancer, 75% of oral, esophageal, hypopharyngeal and laryngeal cancer, 5% of bladder cancer and many other types of cancer.

In addition, a sedentary lifestyle is also the cause of about 5% of deaths from cancer. In particular, obese people have a higher risk of cancer than normal people. Obesity is also the cause of about 20% of cancers such as: esophageal cancer, stomach cancer, colorectal cancer, liver cancer, ovarian cancer, pancreatic cancer, postmenopausal breast cancer, etc.

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