I was 35 when I was diagnosed kind of in early 2023.

2023 年初，我被診斷出患有此病，當時我 35 歲。

I was diagnosed with Stage 3 rectal cancer at that point.

當時我被診斷為直腸癌 3 期。

I was laying in bed and like, typing the symptoms that I had, and at the bottom it would always be stomach or colorectal cancer, and I was like, "That can't be me."

我躺在床上，輸入我的症狀，最後總是胃癌或結直腸癌，我當時想：「那不可能是我吧。」

That's what my grandparents have to worry about.

那是我祖父母要擔心的。

When you look at the risk of being diagnosed with cancer at a young age, so between the age of 15 to 39, that risk has increased 40% from 1975 to now.

當你觀察年輕時（15 歲至 39 歲）被診斷出罹患癌症的風險時，從 1975 年到現在，這種風險增加了 40%。

It's mysterious, it's concerning, and it's something that the whole cancer community is trying to work out right now.

這很神秘，令人擔憂，也是整個癌症界現在正在努力解決的問題。

Everyone's recognizing this is really serious.

每個人都意識到這確實很嚴重。

I'm Mia de Graaf, and I'm a health editor at Business Insider.

我是 Mia de Graaf，我是《Business Insider》的健康內容編輯。

Rates of cancer among young people are rising sharply worldwide, but particularly in certain countries that conform to what we would call a Western lifestyle.

全球年輕人的癌症發生率正在急劇上升，尤其是在某些遵循我們所謂的西方生活方式的國家。

So that's places like the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, certain parts of Europe.

這些地方包括美國、加拿大、英國、澳洲和歐洲的某些地區。

These are all places that eat more ultra-processed food.

這些地方都是吃超級加工食品較多的地方。

Things that are easy, cheap, and fast to get, places where people are often driving everywhere or have poorer sleep schedules.

容易、便宜且快速獲得的食品，人們經常開車去任何地方或睡眠時間較差的地方。

So there are 14 cancers broadly that are increasing really rapidly among young people: breast cancer, colorectal cancer, endometrial cancer, esophagus, bile duct, gallbladder, head and neck, kidney,

因此，有 14 種癌症在年輕人中成長非常迅速：乳癌、大腸癌、子宮內膜癌、食道癌、膽管癌、膽囊癌、頭頸癌、腎癌、

liver, bone marrow, pancreas, prostate, stomach, and thyroid.

肝臟、骨髓、胰臟、攝護腺、胃和甲狀腺。

Those are all ones which are increasing in people under the age of 50.

這些都是50歲以下人群中不斷增加的。

The oncologists that I've spoken to who treat younger patients, the vast majority of patients they see actually seem like a picture of health when they come in.

我採訪過的治療年輕患者的腫瘤科醫生，他們看到的絕大多數患者在進來時實際上看起來都是健康的。

They might be marathon runners or leading incredibly healthy active lives but still have this cancer diagnosis that comes up.

他們可能是馬拉松選手或過著無比健康積極的生活，但還是會被診斷出癌症。

I've also spoken to a lot of young patients about how mind-boggling it is to get this kind of diagnosis at such a young age.

我還和很多年輕患者談過，在這麼年輕的時候就得到這種診斷是多麼令人難以置信。

I was an adamant CrossFit enthusiast, and I had spent a lot of my 30s kind of refocusing my diet on trying to be what we all kind of expect to be healthier.

我是一名堅定的 CrossFit 愛好者，在 30 多歲的時候我花了很多時間重新調整我的飲食，努力成為我們所有人都期望的更健康的樣子。

That, coupled with my young age when I got a diagnosis, that is something you're not supposed to worry about for decades. It was incredibly shocking.

再加上我被診斷時還很年輕，這是你幾十年內都不該擔心的事。這真是太令人震驚了。

When you are a young age, you are in this kind of sandwich generation.

當你年輕的時候，你就屬於這種三明治世代。

You might be caring for your older parents, you might be starting to have a young family, you might be trying to save up money to buy a house.

你可能正在照顧年邁的父母，可能開始建立一個年輕的家庭，可能正在努力存錢買房子。

At that time, getting a cancer diagnosis can be extremely destabilizing.

在這個時期被診斷出癌症會造成極大的不穩定。

I was diagnosed in September of 2015.

我是在 2015 年 9 月確診的。

I got a colonoscopy, and within a week, I was in surgery, and they took 80% of my colon out and started on this crazy long journey of colon cancer at 27.

我做了大腸鏡檢查，一週之內，我接受了手術，他們切除了我 80% 的結腸，並在 27 歲時開始了這段瘋狂的漫長結腸癌之旅。

A person born in 1990 has quadruple the risk of being diagnosed with colorectal cancer compared to a person born in 1950.

與 1950 年出生的人相比，1990 年出生的人被診斷出罹患大腸癌的風險增加四倍。

By 2030, colorectal cancer is going to surpass breast cancer as the leading cause of cancer death among young people.

到 2030 年，大腸癌將超過乳癌，成為年輕人癌症死亡的主要原因。

The unfortunate thing about colorectal cancer in general is it really focuses on a part of our body that we as society have been conditioned to think of as embarrassing or things we don't want to talk about.

一般來說，大腸癌的不幸之處在於，它實際上集中在我們身體的一部分，而我們作為社會已經習慣於認為這是令人尷尬的或我們不想談論的事情。

People even in my town still don't associate colon cancer with young people.

甚至在我的家鄉大腸癌仍然與年輕人無緣。

That's a huge, like, kind of stigma I'm trying to break.

這是我想打破的一個巨大的恥辱。

The thing with colorectal cancer is that a lot of people were coming in with Stage 3, Stage 4, very advanced, and the tumors also looked more aggressive.

大腸直腸癌的問題是，很多人進入第 3 期、第​​ 4 期，非常晚期，而且腫瘤看起來也更具侵襲性。

This is something obviously which was a huge conversation when Chadwick Boseman died.

查德維克·博斯曼去世後，這顯然是一個巨大的話題。

He died of colorectal cancer, and it was Stage 3 or 4 by the time it was discovered.

他死於大腸癌，被發現時已處於第三或第四期。

And that's something that we are really seeing in young people.

我們確實在年輕人身上看到了這一點。

In terms of what's causing the increased cancer rates among young people, there's many different factors that researchers are looking at.

就導致年輕人癌症發生率增加的原因而言，研究人員正在研究許多不同的因素。

Screening has increased, and it has helped us to detect more cancers for sure.

篩檢有所增加，這確實幫助我們發現了更多的癌症。

But that sharp rise that we are seeing in young cancers, it just cannot be accounted for alone by screening.

但我們在年輕癌症中看到的急劇上升，並不能僅透過篩檢來解釋。

If this was accounted for by screening, we would actually be seeing a lot of early-stage cancers, and that's not really what's being borne out in the data.

如果透過篩檢來解釋這一點，我們實際上會看到很多早期癌症，但這並不是數據所證實的。

We're seeing a surprising increase in young people with later-stage cancers, too.

我們也看到患有晚期癌症的年輕人數量驚人地增加。

One of the main factors we're looking at is diet, because eight of the 14 cancers which are increasing among young people are related to the digestive tract.

我們關注的主要因素之一是飲食，因為在年輕人中增加的 14 種癌症中，有 8 種與消化道有關。

And our diet has changed a lot in the last few decades, and we know that the diets that we largely eat now in the US and in other high-income countries is not very good for us.

在過去的幾十年裡，我們的飲食發生了很大的變化，我們知道，我們現在在美國和其他高收入國家主要吃的飲食對我們來說並不是很好。

So that's more red meat, more sugar intake, more alcohol, low intake of water, food that is high in calorie, low in fiber.

因此，更多的紅肉、更多的糖攝取量、更多的酒精、更少的水攝取量、高熱量、低纖維的食物。

It can increase your risk of diabetes.

它會增加患糖尿病的風險。

That can affect how you control insulin.

這會影響你對胰島素的控制。

These are all things that are linked to cancer.

這些都與癌症有關。

So then you have inactivity.

然後是動得太少。

So if you're living a more sedentary lifestyle, perhaps you're not moving around as much, you're not burning as many calories.

如果你的生活方式更加久坐，也許你不會經常走動，也不會燃燒那麼多卡路里，

You don't have that regular movement which offsets inflammation in the body.

你沒有規律的運動來抵消體內的發炎。

Poor sleep is a really big factor, which, if you speak to any oncologist, they will talk to you about sleep schedule.

睡眠不佳是一個非常重要的因素，如果你與任何腫瘤科醫生交談，他們都會與你討論睡眠時程。

Very often, people will be up sort of late into the night, and then they'll wake up very early to go to work, or you get a lot of night-shift workers now, which you didn't have in pre-1950.

很多時候，人們到深夜還醒著，然後他們會很早就起床去上班，或者現在有很多夜班工人，這在 1950 年前是沒有的。

One of the factors which is part of the conversation when we're talking about young cancers is our environment.

當我們談論年輕癌症時，我們所討論的因素之一就是我們的環境。

So obviously there are microplastics, toxins, pollution.

顯然存在微塑膠、毒素和污染。

We do suspect that they're playing a role.

我們確實懷疑它們也有造成影響。

They're much harder to measure.

它們更難測量。

So children today seem to be exposed to chemicals that they probably wouldn't have been exposed to in the 1950s, and that's why we're trying to parse out,

現在的孩子們似乎接觸到了 1950 年代他們可能不會接觸到的化學物質，這就是為什麼我們要試圖解析，

is there a shift in terms of what children are exposed to in the environment now?

現在兒童接觸的環境中的物質是否發生了變化？

One of the rogue factors that people are speaking about is increased height.

人們談論的異常因素之一是身高增加。

So generally, humans are getting bigger.

總的來說，人類正在變得高大。

We are all much taller these days.

如今，我們都長高了許多。

There does seem to be a correlation.

這似乎確實有關聯。

With increased height is increased cancer risk marginally, but it is there, and one of the theories is that simply having more cells in your body increases the risk for more cell division,

隨著身高的增加，癌症風險會略有增加，但它確實存在，其中一種理論是，體內細胞增多就會增加細胞分裂的風險，

which could increase the risk for cancer to grow.

這可能會增加癌症生長的風險。

The way you're born is a really interesting potential risk factor here for cancer.

你的出生方式是一個非常有趣的癌症潛在風險因素。

So if you're born by C-section, you do technically, according to a few studies, have an increased risk of cancer.

因此，根據一些研究，如果你是剖腹產出生的，從技術上講，你患癌症的風險確實會增加。

There was a study done in Sweden recently that caused a big splash, which was that women who were born by a C-section had an increased risk of colorectal cancer in their young adulthood.

最近瑞典的一項研究引起了軒然大波，那就是剖腹產的女性在年輕時罹患大腸癌的風險增加。

And we have seen other studies that being born via c-section increases a child's risk of leukemia.

我們也看到其他研究表明，剖腹產會增加兒童白血病的風險。

When you have a vaginal birth, the baby is coated with microbes, and that seems to fortify their microbiome.

當你進行陰道分娩時，嬰兒會被微生物覆蓋，這似乎會強化他們的微生物組。

We've seen this sharp increase from 1990 to now.

從 1990 年到現在，我們已經看到了急劇增長。

We don't know exactly what that looks like from now on.

我們不知道從現在開始具體是什麼樣子。

Can we reverse this trend?

我們能扭轉這一趨勢嗎？

Is it going in a linear fashion?

是線性發展嗎？

In terms of turning this trend around, the most important thing is research, obviously.

要扭轉這一趨勢，最重要的顯然是研究。

We need to better understand what the causes are, and until we better understand the causes, we can't make a societal effort to turn this trend.

我們需要更了解原因，在我們更了解原因之前，我們無法做出社會努力來扭轉這一趨勢。

A lot of attention is paid to what we could be doing as individuals.

人們非常關注我們作為個人可以做什麼。

So you'll hear everyone talk about diet and how you should be walking more, socializing, being part of a community, sleeping better,

所以你會聽到每個人談論飲食以及你應該如何多走路、社交、成為社區的一部分、睡得更好，

drink less alcohol, don't smoke, don't do drugs, and then of course, do screenings and see a doctor.

少喝酒，不吸煙，不吸毒，當然，還要進行檢查並去看醫生。

But really, if we want to see a societal change and to turn this trend around, it is an infrastructure question.

但實際上，如果我們想要看到社會變革並扭轉這一趨勢，那就是基礎設施問題。

So can we make cities more walkable, or can we make it easier for you to access fresh foods?

那麼我們能否讓城市變得更適合步行，或讓你更容易獲得新鮮食物？

There are some positives.

有一些正面的方面。

The rate of cancer mortality is way down.

癌症死亡率大幅下降。

We've made so much progress in terms of treatment.

在治療方面，我們已經取得了很大的進步。

There are certain vaccines like the HPV vaccine that has dramatically reduced mortality from head and neck cancers, for example.

例如，某些疫苗（例如 HPV 疫苗）可以顯著降低頭頸癌的死亡率。

And then we're also preventing a lot of cancers that are to do with alcohol consumption and smoking.

我們還可以預防許多與飲酒和吸煙有關的癌症。

Of course it's alarming, but the whole cancer community is rallying around this and is starting to pour investment and attention into this area to try and work out what's going on.

當然，這令人震驚，但整個癌症界正在圍繞這個問題團結起來，並開始向這一領域投入投資和關注，試圖弄清楚到底發生了什麼事。

And I think that momentum is a real cause for optimism.

我認為這種勢頭是樂觀的真正原因。