In The Headlines: Increasing incidence of early-onset cancer is “a paradigm shift oncology isn’t quite prepared for”

“Your entire practice, cancer has been associated with an aging population, and then you have a young, beautiful, healthy-looking woman like Alisa Secaida come into your office, it's not a surprise that the doctor, their knee-jerk reaction would be like, ‘Maybe just slow down,’” said The Cancer Letter’s Claire Marie Porter.

In this episode of In the Headlines, Paul Goldberg, editor and publisher of The Cancer Letter, and Claire, reporter, talk about the increasing incidence rates of early-onset cancer, particularly in young women. Claire’s story centered on a 35 year old fit and otherwise healthy mother of two who was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer.

Secaida’s story is not unique, Claire said. ACS data shows that, this just came out recently, earlier this year, that women are now being diagnosed almost twice as much with cancer as men, and that's a reversal of prior trends.

This rise in early-onset cancers is a paradigm shift that oncology isn't quite prepared for, Claire said.

“There's not really a bad guy here. It's just that things are happening. And not only our guidelines and screenings practices, standards of care is not caught up, but I think biases are not caught up either,” Claire said. “I don't think that there's nothing malicious happening here, which is what makes it even more nuanced in such a difficult gray area for young people who are told to advocate for themselves, because sometimes that falls flat.”

Stories mentioned in this podcast include:

• Young women are now diagnosed with cancer at twice the rate of young men. The face of cancer is changing at a time when research is plagued by existential threats 

• Reimagining cancer care for a new generation of patients

• Loss of Y chromosome “cripples” immune cells, University of Arizona researcher finds. Cells with LOY may induce LOY in otherwise healthy cells—a finding that could explain variability in CAR T-cell therapy response

• Bridging the gaps in cancer care for Hispanics: Striving for equity and fairness in scientific advancements

• Harmon Eyre, former ACS chief medical and scientific officer, dies at 84

• George Sigounas named the first-ever chief science advisor at NCI

• Success rates for RPGs at NCI would plummet from 13.4% to 8.3% if Trump’s FY2026 budget is enacted

• FDA booth stood empty at 2025 ASCO annual meeting

• ALT GOV: The HHS “resistance” on social media    

A transcript of this podcast is available: https://cancerletter.com/podcastc/20250611-early-onset/