Recent studies have shown increasing rates of early-onset cancers, often defined as cancers occurring in people younger than age 50, especially colorectal, pancreatic, female breast, and uterine cancers, and younger birth cohorts seem to have a higher risk of some cancer types compared with older birth cohorts. A study by researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) investigating cancer incidence in the United States between 2010 and 2019 has found that breast, colorectal, endometrial, pancreatic, and kidney cancers are becoming more common among individuals younger than age 50. Although the study did not find concomitant increases in mortality rates for most cancers, it showed that colorectal, uterine, and testicular cancer mortality rates also increased among younger adults. The findings may have implications for early-onset cancer prevention and screening efforts. The study by Shiels et al was published in Cancer Discovery.

Teal Health announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of the Teal Wand™, an at-home vaginal sample self-collection device for cervical cancer screening in the United States. The Teal Wand is a prescription device that will soon be available at getteal.com for individuals aged 25 to 65 years at average risk for cervical cancer. The at-home screening includes both the Teal Wand collection kit and an end-to-end telehealth service providing virtual access to Teal medical providers who prescribe the kit, review the results from the lab, and support women throughout their at-home screening experience.

Thousands of forward-looking research studies defined the 2025 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting. Here, aside from our fuller coverage of key presentations in The ASCO Post, we offer a snapshot of a few additional abstracts that may be of interest to cancer researchers and clinicians.

The accelerated approval program of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allows certain medications to be marketed if they are indicated for serious disease and there has been preliminary evidence of the drug’s efficacy. Pharmaceutical companies must then conduct postapproval trials to confirm the medication’s clinical benefit. If the postapproval trial fails, the indication should be removed from the product’s label. Some of these medications can remain available if they have other approved indications and may continue to be prescribed off-label for the withdrawn indication.