New research published in JAMA Network Open from USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of Keck Medicine of USC, suggests that among all cancer survivors, male adolescents and young adults (AYA) have the highest rate of death by suicide.

The study also reports that the number of suicide deaths in the AYA male cancer survivor group (ages 15–39) increased three-fold during the 21-year-study period. In 2021, one in 65 deaths among the group was attributed to suicide. Suicide deaths have also increased for other cancer survivor groups, but the gap in suicide rates between young men and other populations significantly widened over time.

Cancer is becoming more common among young people, and cancer survivors are more likely to struggle with anxiety, depression and thoughts of suicide, according to the American Cancer Society and the National Comprehensive Cancer Network. This study, one of the first to examine suicide rates by gender for AYA patients with cancer, characterized the increasing suicide rate among this population as alarming.

Researchers used data from the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results Program to assess some 4.5 million deaths among cancer survivors between 2000-2021. A cancer survivor is defined as anyone who has ever been diagnosed with cancer, no matter where they are in the course of their disease.

They then divided the data according to three age groups: ages 15-39, 40-59, and sixty-plus, and further divided each group by males or females.

The study found that in 2000, 4.9 deaths per 1,000 deaths of male AYA cancer patients were caused by suicide and the suicide rates for all other age/gender cancer patient groups ranged from 0.4 to 3.1 per 1,000 deaths.

Nearly two decades later in 2021, the number of suicide deaths per 1,000 deaths for male AYA cancer patients mushroomed to 15.4. While the rates of suicide deaths for all other age/gender cancer patient groups also increased, the rates were much lower than that of the male AYA cancer patients, ranging from 0.6 to 7.4 per 1,000 deaths.

In other findings, researchers determined that thyroid cancer, testicular cancer and melanomas of the skin were the three most common cancer diagnoses leading to suicide among male AYA cancer patients. According to the American Cancer Society, these three cancers are among those with the highest five-year survival rates.

Researchers did not have access to certain information about the patients, such as mental health status before cancer diagnosis, the reason or method of suicide death, patients' cancer prognoses, and status of cancer, such as disease recurrence or remission, at the time of death.

However, despite these limitations, the study authors believe that their findings warrant a call for attention focused on the suicide rate of AYA patients, specifically males. They recommend that AYA cancer patients be provided with more long-term support and resources that could potentially reverse this trend.