Growth spurts during adolescence are associated with peaks in the incidence of some types of teenage cancers, researchers said on Thursday.
Although cancer is rare in teenagers, it is the biggest cause of non-accidental death in 13-24 year olds. Four types of cancer, including two bone tumors, are more common in adolescents and young adults.
Professor Jillian Birch, of the University of Manchester in England, told a conference in London that genetics, hormones and events in the womb and early in life, such as infections, may play a role in teenage cancers.
“But we also think there are triggering events during adolescence,” she added. “The striking thing about the bone tumors are that this peak of incidence occurs coincidentally with the adolescent growth spurt,” Birch told the 4th International Conference on Teenage and Young Adult Cancer Medicine.
She went on: “It is very suggestive that there is something happening during this adolescent growth spurt, this rapid period of growth, that is triggering the cancer to develop in a group of cells that are already primed by something that had happened earlier in childhood.”
The risk of developing cancer increases with age. More than 60 percent of all cancers occur in people 65 years and older and are linked to genetic changes that occur over time.
Age-specific needs
Birch told the meeting that genetic predisposition plays a role in cancer in young people but more research is needed to determine what it is about growth that is prompting cancer to develop.
She said international collaborative studies are needed to identify causal factors because of the rarity of individual types of cancer.
Less then 1 percent of cancers are diagnosed in teenagers and young adults aged 13-24. The common types of cancer at that age are osteosarcoma and Ewing sarcoma which are cancers of the bone, Hodgkin’s lymphoma and germ cell, or reproductive cell, tumors in the testicles, ovary and brain.
Professor Tim Eden, also at the University of Manchester, said teenager cancer patients are often treated either in pediatric wards or with adult patients.
He told the meeting that there should be more coordinated care for young people in wards and clinics with resources that are appropriate to their needs.
“We have to look to young people and address age-specific needs,” Eden added.
