The new faces of cancer: Tragedy of young, fit women in their 20s and 30s being struck down by killer disease

While cancer has long been considered a disease of old age, a surge in cases among Gen Z and millennials is gradually turning that trend on its head.

Since 1990, cases of some types of cancers in young people have almost doubled in the US, even as rates have slowed or fallen in their parents and grandparents.

Sydney Towle, from California, was just 23 when she was diagnosed with bile duct cancer in early August 2023 after doctors discovered a ‘sizable mass’ in her stomach that had been growing for four months. 

‘I’m typically an active person but suddenly I started feeling short of breath, and this strange burning sensation took hold in my tummy,’ she shared.

The young and ‘active’ Californian admitted that she had initially overlooked her symptoms and is now urging others via social media not to skip their regular health checkups.

Bile duct cancer, also known as cholangiocarcinoma, is an aggressive type of cancer that starts in the bile ducts. 

It can affect people of different ages but it is more commonly diagnosed in adults over the age of 50.

Ms Towle, whose tumor arose from a genetic mutation, admitted that the most challenging aspect of her journey has been dealing with the unknown.

‘It’s tough for me to plan for the future at all or expect anything when everything is so fragile around my diagnosis and treatment,’ she said.

‘It’s also really hard to plan in the short term, such as dinners or going out with friends, when I don’t know how I’ll feel physically or emotionally on a given day.

‘There are so many things I want to do now, given that I don’t know how much longer I have, but I can’t plan my bucket list or any fun trips while receiving treatment and not knowing where surgery will take me.’

Ms Towle, who recently fulfilled one of her dreams by moving to New York, is currently undergoing aggressive treatment targeting the tumor with a variety of treatments, including chemotherapy and experimental drugs.

Because doctors are not used to seeing cancers in young, healthy people, their symptoms are often dismissed for more benign conditions 

Ms Towle, TikTok star Rachel Yaffe was diagnosed with a rare form of liver cancer at the age of 20. 

Ms Yaffe – who was from Maryland and documented her cancer journey online – said she felt like something was wrong in her late teens but it was put down to a gluten intolerance. 

But after visiting a doctor who saw her level of concern, she was referred to a specialist on the off chance it could be cancer.

They discovered a 20cm tumor in her liver. She passed away on October 11 this year following a seven-year battle with the disease.

After experiencing bloating in her abdomen, Ms Yaffe was diagnosed with stage 4 fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma and she was rushed in for surgery a few days later for the tumor to be removed. 

The disease had spread too far in her body to be treated. 

Stark data published earlier this year revealed newer generations are at a greater risk of more than a dozen cancers than those that came before them.

An analysis of tens of millions of diagnoses found millennials (born between 1981-96) and Generation X (1965-80) were more likely to develop 17 forms of cancer than the post World War II Boomer generation.

Obesity, sedentary lifestyles, and ultra-processed foods have been blamed for the rise in young people cancers, but doctors say that doesn’t tell the full story.

Several doctors have told DailyMail.com they are also seeing a rise in patients in their 20s and 30s who eat healthy and stay fit developing the condition. 

Michelle Hughes was told she had incurable cancer and three years to live at age 34, she has proved the medics wrong and says she is ‘alive and thriving’ at 37.

The mom-of-three from Prince Edward Island, Canada, received her ‘death sentence’ after collapsing at home following the birth of her third child.

Doctors went on to discover ‘innumerable’ lung tumors and 15 liver cysts in her body, which they said could not be operated on. 

At first, Mrs Hughes said she was in ‘a really negative space because I lost the life that I envisioned for myself and my family.’

But that was three years ago. Incredibly, since then, Mrs Hughes embarked on a wellness drive with the goal of becoming a triathlete. 

Having never been a runner before, Mrs Hughes took part in 12 running events in 2023, including a half marathon. 

And this August, she completed a half triathlon retracing the route from the hospital where she was diagnosed to her summer home.

This epic feat has been turned into a short documentary which will air this November.  

Mrs Hughes deems exercise as one of her saviors through living with cancer, along with her husband Ty. 

In a post on Instagram – where her inspiring attitude has seen her accrue more than 300,000 followers – the brunette reveals that she was diagnosed with cancer on August 20, 2021.

Recalling the chain of events, she wrote: ‘I was holding my three-week old son in my arms, sitting next to my husband when my first oncologist said I have five years to live, likely three. My girls were five and two years old at the time.’

While she was completely bereft of hope in that moment, Mrs Hughes says the cancer has spurred her on to ‘just live,’ with her Instagram handle – @myjourneytojustlive – reflecting this. 

She adds: ‘What I didn’t realize then, and what I’ve come to know and understand, is my life was just beginning.

‘I was just given the gift to know my life may be cut shorter than most, and I knew that if I wanted to live, I needed to set myself up for success, stop sitting back and waiting to die.’

Mrs Hughes was diagnosed with a rare sarcoma called epithelioid hemangioendothelioma (EHE) that originates in the cells that line the blood vessels.

EHE – which has an incident rate of less than one million people in the US – is most commonly associated with young and middle-aged adults, and is more common in women.

One of the signs of EHE is a dry cough that causes difficulty breathing.

Other symptoms include a lump or swelling in the soft tissue of the body under the skin, and stomach pain along with weight loss if the disease is present in the liver.

Mrs Hughes said she started noticing something was wrong when she was pregnant with her first daughter, Juliet, back in 2016.

She told Today.com that she developed an acute pain in the upper right side of her abdomen, and an ultrasound revealed a hemangioma (a benign tumor) on her liver.

While doctors didn’t said it wouldn’t trigger that type of pain, they said everything looked to be in order and they performed a follow-up scan a year later and again after she had another daughter, Adeline, via IVF.

Scans showed that the mass hadn’t grown, but Mrs Hughes said the pain got ‘significantly worse.’ 

Despite further investigation, doctors could still not get to the root of the matter. 

It was only after the premature birth of her son, Hatton, due to a ruptured placenta that Mrs Hughes’ condition took a turn for the worse. 

At the time, Mrs Hughes was living in Yellowknife in Canada’s Northwest Territories, but while on vacation visiting family on Prince Edward Island she collapsed. 

It was then that the cancer was detected and she never returned to Yellowknife. 

In an Instagram post, she reveals how her life was thrown into a spin: ‘We had plans to return home at the end of summer, after Hatton’s arrival.

But… we never made it back home. Literally. We remained on PEI, and Ty flew back alone, packed up our home along with friends and community members.

‘Our home was sold and a new family moved in to make their own memories.

‘The kids and I said goodbye to their rooms, beds, and toys via FaceTime. It may be one of the worst pains I ever experienced.’

Now the Hughes’ are based out of Prince Edward Island, where they help run regular events to raise cancer awareness.