It's the Brian Lair show on WNYC. Good morning again, everyone. I'm Bridget Bergen, sitting in for Brian today.

For the past few years, news articles have covered rising rates of what are considered early onset cancers, usually meaning cancers that occur in people under 50 years old.

And in the past decade, a trend has emerged of over a dozen different types of cancer on the rise in younger adults.

They include breast, colorectal, kidney, pancreatic, stomach

cancers and more. One example? In 2019, there were 4,800 more early onset breast cancer

cases in the United States than there would have been expected had 2010 rates persisted. Some of that is due to better technology and an uptick and routine screenings that help catch

some cancers early.

But new research suggests there are a number of factors that can help explain why people

are getting certain types of cancer earlier than ever before.

Joining us now to explain what scientists have found

so far and what's still unknown is Nina Agarwal Health Reporter for the New York Times.

Nina, welcome back to WNYC. Hi, thanks so much for having me. And listeners, have you or a loved

one been diagnosed with early onset cancer? What sorts of conversations did you have

with your doctors? Was it hard to get a diagnosis or prioritize screenings or have health insurance

cover screening because you weren't the right age range for the cancer you had? Or anything else

you'd like to share from your own experience, the numbers 212-433 W-N-Y-C, that's 212-433-9-6-9-2.

You can also text that number.

Nina, you define early onset cancer as those that occur in people under 50.

Does that mean that all cancers are just certain types that doctors don't usually see

in people under 50?

So any kind of early onset cancer is, we're talking about adults here generally, and the range

varies a little bit by cancer, but under 40, 45, or 50, depending on the type of cancer.

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