Cancer risk in over 60s underrepresented despite high diagnosis rates

Older adults are largely obscured in the media representation of cancer and cancer experience, despite over three quarters of all cancers in the UK diagnosed in those aged over 60. The research, led by the University of Glasgow and funded by Cancer Research UK, found that articles featuring personal cancer stories more frequently focus on younger people. The research, which is published today in BMC Public Health, found that only 15% of non-celebrity cancer stories in the media were about people over 60. Similarly, 64% of personal stories describing celebrities with cancer were typically under age 60. The study examined and analysed 800 newspaper articles about the four most common cancers - breast, prostate, lung and colorectal - published within eight UK national newspapers from 2003-2004 and 2013-2014 to provide longitudinal comparative snapshots. In the UK, the incidence of each of the 'top four' cancers is strongly correlated with increasing age, with a third of all cancers diagnosed in those over 75. However, the study found age was mentioned as an associated risk factor in only 12% of all articles examined and discussed in only 2.5% of them.