The unexplained rise of cancer among millennials

When Paddy Scott developed agonising stomach pains in 2017, the possibility of cancer never entered his head. The British expedition photographer and film-maker, whose work often took him into rugged or dangerous terrain, was just 34 years old and prided himself on his physical fitness. 

After his GP referred Scott to hospital for a colonoscopy, the clinician who administered it asked if he would take part in a trial of a new blood test designed to detect tumours. The invitation struck him as strange. “I remember thinking, yes but I’ll be the kind of ‘control’ that doesn’t have it,” Scott says. Later he received the devastating news that he had advanced bowel cancer which had spread to his liver.

Scott’s experience is not the anomaly it once was. The past 30 years have seen an upsurge in cases of so-called “early onset” cancer in the under-50s. So marked is the increase, leading epidemiologists have suggested it should be called an epidemic.