Kate Middleton’s diagnosis comes amid early-onset cancer ‘epidemic’

Kate Middleton revealed Friday that she’s battling cancer that was discovered after recent abdominal surgery — and now, oncologists are sounding the alarm about an uptick in certain cancers among younger adults.

“There is an epidemic currently of young people getting cancer (under 50s),” Dr. Shivan Sivakumar, associate professor in oncology at the University of Birmingham in England, told The Telegraph last week.

“It is unknown the cause of this, but we are seeing more patients getting abdominal cancers,” Sivakumar added.

And it’s not just stomach cancers — colorectal cancer rates have been rising among US adults younger than 55. A study published last year in BMJ Oncology found a 79% spike in the global incidence of early-onset cancer and a 27% increase in early-onset cancer deaths between 1990 and 2019.

Breast, tracheal, bronchus, lung, colorectal, and stomach cancers caused the most disease and death in younger adults in 2019, noted the researchers, who blamed poor diet, alcohol consumption, tobacco use, physical inactivity, and excess body fat.

Harvard Medical School faculty members went so far as to refer to early-onset cancer as an “emerging global epidemic” in 2022 research.

Middleton, 42, did not specify the type of cancer she has, only that tests following her “major abdominal surgery” in January “found cancer had been present.”

“My medical team therefore advised that I should undergo a course of preventative chemotherapy, and I’m now in the early stages of that treatment,” Middleton shared.

Andrew Beggs, a consultant colorectal surgeon and a senior clinical fellow at the University of Birmingham, told The Telegraph that the diagnosis must have hit the royal family “like a bus.”

“When I started as a cancer surgeon 20 years ago, you rarely saw any younger patients, but now I see them regularly,” said Beggs, who runs a clinic for cancer patients younger than 45.

“When they turn up they are shocked, because often they haven’t had any symptoms and because of their age they are not thinking about cancer,” he added.

The Telegraph spoke with researchers who speculated about potential reasons for the growth in certain cancers, including genetic factors and changes to the gut microbiome.

Dr. Veda Giri, a Yale Medicine medical oncologist and director of Yale Cancer Center’s Early-Onset Cancer Program at Smilow Cancer Hospital, said this month that the prevalence of early-onset cancer “points to the need for more research in all kinds of domains — in population science, behavioral health, public health, and basic science as well.”

“So, right now, we are focusing on recognizing that early-onset cancer is a different type of cancer and providing more support for these younger patients,” she explained.

Experts say that the Princess of Wales’s public journey may encourage young people to get tested — which could lead to more documented cancer cases.

A Texas man who was diagnosed with Stage 2 colon cancer in 2021 said he drew inspiration from “Black Panther” star Chadwick Boseman, who died of colon cancer in 2020 at the age of 43.

“Chadwick Boseman raised awareness,” Randall D. Hardy told his local ABC station in 2022. “Even for me. Just seeing how he was so graceful through it. It showed how you can have the strength, even in a situation like that, to keep going forward and doing the right things.”

“The Newsroom” actress Olivia Munn, 43, also recently revealed her breast cancer diagnosis and double mastectomy, crediting her doctor for conducting a risk assessment for the cancer.

“The fact that she did saved my life,” Munn wrote in an Instagram post this month.