Three years ago, Vanessa Chapoy was only 24 when she discovered a lump in her breast as big as a walnut. What followed was a series of medical examinations that ultimately led to her diagnosis of stage two breast cancer. Chapoys world was turned upside down as she stepped into the relentless journey of cancer treatments which included lumpectomy, fertility treatments, chemotherapy, and a double mastectomy.

Now, at 27, shes still battling the after-effects of her treatments. As an unfortunate souvenir of her journey, she suffers from early menopause-like symptoms due to hormone therapy and chemo brain, a cognitive impairment following chemotherapy. Chapoys story is far from unique; its becoming increasingly common, symbolizing a worrisome trend in our health landscape: the rise of early-onset cancer.

The Startling Statistics: Early-Onset Cancer on the Rise

Cancer, a disease usually associated with older adults, has been infiltrating the lives of younger individuals with alarming regularity. Nearly 60% of cancer patients in the United States are diagnosed at the age of 65 or older. However, in recent decades, the incidence of cancer among individuals under 50 (designated as early-onset cancer) has been on a disturbing upward trend.

Termed as an oncological tsunami, this alarming upswing in cancer rates has seen an increase of nearly 18% in early-onset cases between 2000 and 2019 in the U.S alone. This surge, as reflected by data from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), has eclipsed a slight decline in cancer rates...

PMID:  Infect Dis Model. 2023 Jun ;8(2):390-402. Epub 2023 Mar 29. PMID: 37124150 Abstract Title:  The influence of ambient air pollution on the transmission of tuberculosis in Jiangsu, China. Abstract:  In this paper, based on the statistical data, we investigate the effects of long-term exposure to ambient particulate air pollution on the transmission dynamics of tuberculosis (TB) in Jiangsu, China by studying the threshold dynamics of the TB epidemic model via the statistical data analytically and numerically. The basic reproduction numberreveals that TB in Jiangsu, China is an endemic disease and will persist for a long time. And the numerical results show that, in order to control the TB in Jiangsu effectively, we must decrease the depuration coefficient of PMin the body, the proportion of TB symptomatic infectious by direct transmission, the reactivation rate of the pre-symptomatic infectious and the effect coefficient of PMand MTB inhaled of TB transmission, and increase the uptake coefficient, the recovery rate of the symptomatic/pre-symptomatic infectious and the influence coefficient of PMon the body of mortality. Our study shows that PMis closely related to the incidence of TB, and the effective control efforts are suggested to focus on increasing close-contact distance and wearing protective mask to decrease the influence of PMon the TB transmission, which may shed a new light on understanding the environmental drivers to TB.

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