RRU In the Media: Health care focus for younger Canadians with cancer

In her recent article in Macleans, Cheryl Heykoop, associate professor in RRU’s Master of Arts in Leadership Health Specialization program, explains the world is facing an epidemic of cancer in people under 50. She indicates that health-care systems are beginning to specialize in providing adolescent or younger adult - AYA - care to meet the needs of this patient group. 

She goes on to further outline the challenges in this excerpt: 

“Another study from 2023 found that Canadian women in their twenties, thirties and forties are more likely to get breast cancer now than women in the same age groups in the ’80s. Similar patterns exist for thyroid, kidney, endometrial and prostate cancer, with Gen Zs and millennials developing them at roughly twice the rate of earlier generations at the same ages. 

Researchers have speculated broadly on the potential causes of these increases, including stress, processed foods, environmental toxins and even microplastics. But with less than one per cent of Canadian cancer research focused on younger adults, these culprits are just hypotheses. The need to better understand cancer in AYAs is more critical than ever, and health-care systems—including ours—have to evolve accordingly.”

Read the whole article in Macleans.