• Posted June 24, 2026

Accelerated Aging May Explain Rising Cancer Risk In Young Adults

Younger generations have a higher risk of developing cancer earlier in their lives, and a new study advances one potential explanation.

Accelerated “wear-and-tear” biological aging among younger folks appears to be interfering with the way their bodies respond to cancer, researchers reported June 22 in the journal Nature Medicine.

The more advanced a young person’s biological age, the higher their cancer risk, researchers found.

The study also found that faster aging increased cancer risk among certain organ systems in younger adults.

For example, advanced immune aging was associated with early-onset lung cancer, while accelerated aging of fat tissue was linked to early colon cancer, researchers said.

“If we can identify younger people with the highest cancer risk when they are still healthy, we can focus on prevention and early-detection strategies for the individuals who will benefit most from early interventions,” senior researcher Yin Cao said in a news release. Cao is an associate professor at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Cancers diagnosed under age 50 increased by 24% worldwide between 1990 and 2019, researchers said in background notes.

In the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, people born in the 1990s face at least a fourfold higher risk of early-onset colon cancer compared to those born in the 1960s, researchers said in background notes.

However, it’s not clear why young people have a rising cancer risk, given that cancer has previously been considered an age-related disease, researchers said.

Older adults typically have a higher risk because they’ve had more time to accumulate cell damage that can trigger cancer growth.

Researchers suspected that advanced biological aging might be one driver. Biological aging is the age our bodies are based on the wear-and-tear of daily life, as opposed to the chronological age that our birthdate reflects.

For the new study, researchers analyzed data from more than 154,000 young adults in the U.K. Biobank, a large-scale health research project, and more than 10,000 participants in a similar U.S. research program.

The team used blood and genetics tests to evaluate the biological age of people belonging to different generations. The tests evaluated both overall biological aging as well as the biological age of specific organs.

Results showed that, compared to older people, people born more recently tended to be aging faster.

For example, U.K. residents born between 1965 and 1975 had biological aging that was 23% more advanced than those born between 1950 and 1954, after accounting for chronological age.

Similarly, Americans born between 1990 and 1999 were, on average, aging 92% faster than those born between 1965 and 1969.

This increased aging was linked to an 8% increased risk of early-onset organ cancers, researchers said.

When participants were grouped based on their level of biological aging, those with the most advanced aging had a 15% increased risk of early-onset cancer, according to the study.

This increased risk persisted even after controlling for genetic drivers of cancer, researchers said.

It’s still not clear what’s driving this advanced aging, researchers said. Environmental, lifestyle and social factors all could be leaving a lasting mark on the bodies of younger generations, causing accelerated aging.

“Our ultimate goal is to decode how modern environments become biologically embedded to drive cancer risk, transforming prevention from broad recommendations to personalized interventions,” Cao said.

“This brings us closer to identifying risk earlier and developing prevention strategies that are tailored to an individual’s biology,” she said.

More information

Cleveland Clinic has more about biological age.

SOURCES: Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, news release, June 22, 2026; Nature Medicine, June 22, 2026