There is a rise in young people being diagnosed with cancer, it's called early on-set.

Colorectal cancer is now the leading cancer killer for men under 50 and number two for women.

"I'll have days when every patient that I'm seeing is younger than me, and that is shocking," Oncologist Dr. Wells Messersmith said.

With deaths among young adults expected to double by 2030.

"People are in college who have abdominal pain, they go to the emergency room, and they have widespread colon cancer," Cleveland Clinic Oncologist Dr. Dale Shepard said.

What's to blame? Experts point to diet and lifestyle.

"We think obesity has something to do with it. Our diet's highly processed food, red meats, and things. Lack of exercise and changes in microbiome," Messersmith said.

The World Health Organization has categorized processed meats, like hotdogs and burgers, to be carcinogens, and some researchers believe artificial sweeteners may contribute to the problem.

"I've seen where maybe 6,000 food products may have aspartame," Shepard said.

And a low-fiber diet, combined with highly caffeinated energy drinks, could be a dangerous mix.

Despite decades of decline linked to reduced smoking, one in 10 lung cancer diagnoses now affects non-smokers under 55.

Bottom line, if you think something is wrong, check it out.

"If you wait, and you find it late, and you don't have screening, you find it when it has already spread, and it's metastatic, it is virtually never cured," Shepard said.

The good news, Americans are more likely to survive a cancer diagnosis compared with people a generation ago.

The five-year survival rate improved from 49 percent in the 70s to 68 percent today.