The incidence of esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) is increasing in adults younger than 50 years and is more often diagnosed at advanced stages in this age group in comparison with cases diagnosed in older adults, according to Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program (SEERS) data.
Between 1975 and 2015, the age-standardized EAC incidence rate increased in three age groups: those younger than 50 years, those aged 50–69, and those aged 70 years and older.
The increase was greatest in those younger than 50, at 2.9% per year, Don Codipilly, MD, a gastroenterology fellow at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, and colleagues report.
The findings were published December 11 in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention.
The investigators analyzed 34,443 cases of EAC diagnosed during the study period. In addition to the increasing incidence rates, they found that between 2000 and 2015, 84.9% of cases diagnosed in younger adults were of regional or distant disease, compared with 77.6% and 67.8% of cases in those aged 50–69 and 70 and older, respectively.
As a result, the younger adults had poorer survival outcomes: The 5-year EAC-free survival rates during the most recent period (2000–2011) were 22.9% among those younger than 50, compared with 29.6% in both the 50–69 and the 70 and older age groups, they note.
